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I bear no shame in admitting that
I love concept albums. In doing this review I couldn’t help
but think in terms of themes. And for my money nobody does
a concept album as well as keyboard players do. So it should
come as no surprise that two of my favorite Oliver Wakeman
albums would be Jabberwocky and The Hounds of the Baskervilles.
Oliver Wakeman’s new release Mothers Ruin, however takes a
decidedly different approach and ventures more into the realms
of hard-edged melodic rock. *** This time around there’s more
of a band approach to the compositions, a band consisting
of Rick Wakeman’s eldest son Oliver (keyboards, acoustic guitar),
Moon Kinnaird (vocals), David Mark Pearce (guitar), Tim Buchanan
(bass), and Dave Wagstaffe (drums). As a unit this is a pretty
tight group, the playing is skillful and precise. It sounds
like they’ve worked together for years. ***
All nine tracks for the most part
fall into the four minute range. The three longer tracks clock
in at six, eight and ten minutes each and all were composed
by Oliver Wakeman. On the surface, individually each of these
songs is well composed, well arranged, and well executed.
Each seems to provide ample opportunity for the musicians
to each have a crack at the spotlight. Any one of them could
have made an appearance on either of the two previously mentioned
concept works. The overriding wealth of keyboard sounds is
naturally the result of Wakeman’s instruments of choice. There
are times where the sounds he coaxes out of his keyboards
is more than reminiscent of his fathers playing style. But
that’s a good thing, because he adds his own personality to
the work. ***
I mentioned earlier that these
compositions more accurately fall into the hard-edged melodic
category, and that’s certainly true of the shorter pieces.
The three longer compositions allow for more of the progressive
symphonic aspects of composition to shine through. These three
pieces while still melodic tend to change time and tempo slightly
but more than anything convey a multiplicity of moods and
atmospheres. All of which tends to highlight the straightforwardness
of the shorter pieces. ***
I started out referencing concept
albums. To my ears more times than not, the concept is the
glue that holds the elements together particularly it seems
when it comes to keyboard players. The overriding theme is
what moves the ear from one song to the next. Without a theme
or concept you have a collection of songs, and while each
of the songs is well done, there isn’t the same impetus to
listen. I say this is true particularly for keyboard players
and I’ve felt much the same way about Rick Wakeman’s solo
efforts. The ones that work for me are the concepts. And yes
I realize this may be a very unfair responsibility to place
on keyboard players, but that’s the way my ear works. ***
That’s not to say there isn’t a
lot to appreciate here, not at all. As mentioned Mothers Ruin
is a well crafted collection of songs and a worthy addition
to Oliver Wakeman’s catalog. It’s just that to my ears this
collection of songs doesn’t provide the same pleasure as the
two concept works I mentioned above. I’ll be first in line
for Oliver Wakeman’s next concept work. ***
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