By: Endre `Bandi` Hübner
o Eric's credit, his music is really diverse, so the different radio channels have different stuff to choose from. Some of the songs are in the vein of Satriani, others are more jazzy influenced, there's fingerpicking bluegrass, as well as a few vocal tracks of different nature. After the radio stuff the title track finishes with the unstruck melody itself (?) an eastern influenced sitar and guitar based experiment. But good things come
to those who wait till the end of it as the following "Tribute" flashes
Eric's talent. It's a cool, uptempo instrumental, sounds pretty much how
Satch would sound had he grown up in Nashville. The tricks and the attitude
are all there, it's just the overall sound that differs,but the solos are
really good in all of them, especially the fade-out solo of "The Simple
Things" that is a bluesy little number reminding me of the finest moments of
Stevie Ray Vaughn. The next two instrumentals "The Real You" and "Tai-Chi"
are the highlights of the album, both of them really tasty tracks with good
guitar-sounds and very memorable melodies. Highly recommended to
instrumental fans, even to those who do not care that much for rock but
enjoy the likes of Jan Akkerman, "Tai-Chi" reminded me very much of his
sound. "Shine On" is one of the okay vocal tracks, a midtempo stomper with
good melodies, the instrumental "Under a Different Light" showcases some
really good songwriting, while "Merry-Go-Round" is 80s influenced pop-rock,
The instrumental "Exit 10" restores the faith, so does the acoustic, eastern
influenced "Intermission".
The album consists of two parts (they are called Acts), the second stars
with another vocal track... yet the following instrumentals wipe the floor
with it. The acoustic "Affectionately Yours" has a classical guitar-playing
approach and a really good engineering brings the beautiful sound of the
classical guitar through. Patrick Doody was responsible for the production.
"There Are No Words" stays on the acoustic side but with a full-band
arrangement, another winner in my book. The remaining tracks all offer some
variety and all in all variety is the biggest strength of this album, not to
mention its CD maximum 1 hour and 18 minutes total running time. You
definitely get value for your money here and I'm sure everybody finds
something to love in this album.
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