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Non-Prog CD Reviews

Blue Eyed Sun

Tidal Sound

Review by Gary Hill

The mix of sounds on this is cool. Alternative rock, pop music other sounds are included in the mix here. There are songs that work better than others, but everything is here is pretty effective. I’m not sure that I’d close the disc with the song they use for that slot, but otherwise, this album is paced well. It never feels redundant. If you like pop rock with fairly wide ranging influences, you should like this.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013  Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
Rocco's Song

This opens with just vocals, but many layers of vocals. From there it launches out to a bouncy kind of alternative rock meets pop vibe. This is catchy and cool. The chorus is very accessible and this is a fun tune that’s quite bouncy.

Fidelity Melody
The intricate, dreamy section that opens this calls to mind progressive rock quite a bit. As it launches out from there that sort of trippy prog element is still present. There are parts of this that make me think of early Pink Floyd a bit. This is not the easily accessible tune that the opener was, but it’s quite magic. It remains pretty mellow and quite a tasty piece. I really love the gentle little piano bit that ends the song.
Given Name

Alternative rock and pop merge nicely on this mid-tempo number.

Make Friends

A harder edged song, we get some falsetto vocals on this piece. It’s a good number, but not as strong as the stuff we’ve heard to this point.

Johnny Boy

The alternative rock and folk elements remain here. This is more of an old time folk tune with some bluegrass in the mix, though.

Bucket

Here we get a real classic pop sounding tune. It still has that bouncy kind of alternative pop music.

Please

There’s a killer bluesy vibe to this tune, but the vocals bring an almost jazzy vibe to this. Sure, the usual suspects remain here in terms of stylistic leanings, but this is quite jazzy. It’s also one of the best songs of the whole set.

Panthers

Piano opens this cut and it grows out from there into another pop oriented, alternative rock like number. There are some intriguing shifts and changes here.

Mountains

The first parts of this song are good, but a little less than spectacular.  A more lushly arranged segment later is among the most potent passages of the album, though.

Tidal Sound

They close the disc with the title track. This is an unusual piece. It’s more complex than a lot of the music here. There are parts that are a bit lackluster, but other parts that really shine. It’s the kind of thing that takes more than one or two spins to really grasp. All in all, this is a cool tune, but perhaps not the best choice to close the set.

 
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