You can count the number of high calibre Westcoast rock releases over the last few years on the fingers of one hand. And that's been nothing less than extremely disappointing.
We've even seen a dip in quality from the usually reliable old guard, like Joseph Williams and Jay Graydon.
Past masters like them seem to be getting commissioned to wring out the last few drops from a dried out well of inspiration.
Only Norway's
Lava and Sweden's
Andreas Aleman have reached the genre's high watermark, established by bands like Toto and Ambrosia.
We can now add the phenomenally talented Tollak Ollestad (Co-incidentally a past member of Ambrosia) and his third solo album, '
Across The Rubicon'.
It's westcoast rock with a contemporary spin, drawing on pop, AOR, guitars, strings and wind instruments to create broad, colourful brushstrokes of noise, with lots of textured detail, hidden in songs full of lyrical beauty and slow burning melodies.
'Into Your Silence' and '
Earthshine' are where the chemistry works best. The first is a litmus test exercise, combining Toto's sweet, languorous musical passages with
Lava's taut, muscular melodies. The second is reminiscent of Mr Mister's creative purple patch, circa the criminally underrated 'Go On'.
'
Walk With Me' is a real highlight. A dreamy, vaguely Gabriel-esque sound is sketched carefully around a repetitive, hypnotic piano motif and just goes on and on, like a stream of consciousness shuffled into some kind of order.
Ollested even has the audacity and the chops to cover the Fab Four's '
Come Together', turning it into a soulful, smoky, tour de force.
But the real standouts are
'Undertow' and
'Paper Doll'. Songs where Ollestad shows real artistic growth as a songwriter, producer and vocalist, infusing each of these convention-defying pop / rock /soul songs with an emotional conviction.
A bridge too far ?
I think not. This is 21
st century westcoast rock at its absolute best.
Written by
Brian Monday, June 15, 2009
Show all reviews by BrianRatingsBrian: 8.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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