Paul Gilbert is a very productive gentleman. In recent years he almost released a solo album each year including a "best of" and an acoustic CD.
For those unfamiliar with Gilbert, he started his career in Racer X, formed super group
Mr. Big where he played on their first 3 studio albums and thereafter he pursued a solo career.
Paul Gilbert handles both vocals and guitars and even though I like Gilbert's voice - there is no doubt that his impressive guitar playing still is the selling point. However, "Space Ship One" is not total shredding - the album contains 2 instrumental tracks, while the other tracks are a nice mixture of pop/rock with a twist of Hard Rock spiced with superb guitar playing.
The best tracks are;
Space Ship One which has a cool riff, good melody and great chorus. Great unpretentious rock once again from Mr. Gilbert. The solo just reminds the listener that this is THE
Paul Gilbert, guitar hero of Racer X and
Mr. Big fame.
SVT opens with a heavy guitar. It's a primitive guitar track, but it's done with charm and brilliant playing - the guitar solo is fast and furious.
Gilbert is one of the few that can get away with writing only a handful of lyric lines, add melody and turn it into a song, which lasts more than 3 minutes and still keeps the listener excited.
Interaction only has a couple of verse lines. Primitive? Yes.. but it works - the song has a pounding riff and a spacey atmosphere that keeps me coming back to the song.
G9 is a beautiful acoustic instrumental guitar piece.
The above standard tracks;
Mr. Spock is a retro pop/rock song. Gilbert has a partiality for Beatles-like vocal harmonies, which is underlined on
Mr. Spock. Again Gilbert provides the song with
a brilliant solo that really adds something to the song.
Good Man displays
Paul Gilbert's skills in writing a melodic rock song with elements of pop. Gilbert is not a big crooner, but his songs are written to match his vocal abilities and
Good Man is Paul's best vocal performance of the album.
Gilbert salutes the late George Harrison on
It's All Too Much. Gilbert's cover is successful because he has kept the emotion of the original.
Standard tracks;
Not fantastic, not bad either...
Every Hot Girl Is a Rockstar
On the Way to Hell has fast chord changes and a pretty cool kick ass vibe, but the chorus is tame and primitive.
Probably to suck up to Gilbert's huge Japanese following,
Boku No Atama is sung in Japanese - a fun and unserious song.
The fast "tongue in cheek" old school rocker
Wash My Car has a cool 50's/60's feel to it. However,
Paul Gilbert should have kept it a 2 minute song in the 50's/60's tradition instead of a running time of 4 minutes.
The album closer
We All Dream of Love is a
stripped back song with piano, percussion and acoustic guitar. The lyrics are quite thoughtful.
The instrumental
Jackhammer represents the downside of the album. The song is perfect executed technically, but it becomes boring because it seems like a showcase in guitar, bass and drums. The individuals get to unfold their talent, but it doesn't work as a song. The disaster is complete with a boring drum solo. Even in a live situation drum solos are boring, but on studio records it's like a glass of sleeping pills.
Drummer Marco Minneman and long time sidekick Linus of Hollywood act as a perfect backing band, which allows Gilbert to take the spotlight with his vocals and extravagant guitar playing.
All in all a good solid album from Gilbert with a few standard tracks and single miss.
Written by
Michael Friday, September 2, 2005
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