Last year's
Radio Earth album "No Signal" was among my favorite albums of that year. The follow up "Gray Matter" is now finished. The duo Chris Capozza and Bill Kortvely have done it again and made another excellent album.
"Gray Matter" is a bit different from "No Signal".
Radio Earth still play guitar based Rock, but this time they have taken a more modern approach by including electronic sounds. The modern sound contributes to the special atmosphere that characterizes the whole album. A song like
My Lucky Day is actually improved with the drum programming adding an extra dimension.
The album highlight is the up-tempo song
Love and Hate with a moody driven guitar. However, the album is diversified with plenty of great tracks worth mentioning like
Eye To Eye with its neat guitar riff and a great chorus.
The album has some very melodic songs like
Surrendering with excellent vocals by Capozza and a sing-along chorus.
Forever Near is another melodic track with a certain emotion to it. Album closer
"Om" might as well be the soundtrack for the next Mission Impossible film. Capozza joins in on this Keyboard oriented track and finish off the track with a cool guitar solo.
"Gray Matter" also includes a remake of
Enuff Z'nuff's
My Heroin. Compared to the original version, this version is electric and much more Rocky.
Radio Earth have succeeded in adding their own personal touch on the track. The
Radio Earth interpretation is groovy and they have done the impossible and made a version that's matching
Enuff Z'nuff own version.
It is hard to categorize
Radio Earth since they have created their own niche style. I would describe their music as melodic Rock with lots of atmosphere. This is especially caused by the great production, which has provided the album with a certain emotion. The thick guitar sound and the electronic sounds mainly produce the special atmosphere.
It takes a little time adapting to
Radio Earth's style, but then the listener is rewarded. I don't know when the album blossoms into its full potential, because "Gray Matter" still grows on me after around 15 listens.
The song
Meant to be characterizes my relationship with
Radio Earth. Now they have released 2 great album that both satisfy my exclusive taste in music.
...And two out of two ain't bad.
Written by
Michael Sunday, September 29, 2002
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