Artists | Issues | CD Reviews | Interviews | Concert Reviews | DVD/Video Reviews | Book Reviews | Who We Are | Staff | Home
 
Non-Prog CD Reviews

Vanderwolf

The Great Bewilderment (colored vinyl)

Review by Gary Hill

What an intriguing album this is. The mix of sounds is so hard to pin down. Even within one song, there are so many leanings. It all works well, though. The color and pattern of the vinyl is absolutely gorgeous, too and really befitting the music here. In fact, that vinyl color earned this one a Music Street Journal bonus video.

Here is that MSJ  video youtube.com/watch?v=e_-b6FjZh0k

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2024  Volume 3 More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2024.

Track by Track Review
Side A
                    
A'coming Home

There is an edgy rocking sound at the heart of this track  It has some proggy keys, but almost a garage band angle at its core.

The 6.09

This comes in with an acoustic guitar based arrangement. The track builds out to some cool rocking stuff to present some contrast. I really like this number a lot. It has a classic sound to it with both folk music and punk angles in the mix. It's all delivered with so much style and dynamic range.

Sweep Away The Shards

Slow moving and bluesy, this rocker is stylish. It has some definite psychedelic and prog tendencies, leaning toward space music. It works upward to more powerful stuff, but the whole disc just oozes charm and drama.

Gaza

Mellow acoustic guitar oriented sounds with intriguing atmospherics around them get us underway here. It paints an intriguing picture. The track is somewhat repositioned after this opening movement. It just gets sort of a minor redefinition, remaining trippy, slow moving and psychedelic with hints of prog as it grows outward. The lyrics are timely, yet they were written before the current conflict. It gets more rocking further down the road. It drops back to trippy atmospherics further down the road. This track works through with varying movements, and it's so powerful, both musically and emotionally. I love this so much . It is the very definition of art music. It's about ten minutes long, too, making it an epic.

Side B
                     
Love Stay Strong

There are some hints of country music in the mix here. This has plenty of folk and other elements at play. There is a real classic vibe to it.

The Book of Dread

Space rock elements emerge as we get going here. This drives out to more of a rocking tune with 80s vibes at play from there. This is a hard track to pin down stylistically, though. It wanders through many things with prog and psychedelia merging with other more grounded things. This has some pretty powerful moments along the road.

The Here & Now

A soulful rock style is on the menu as this gets going. It makes me think of what you might get if you blended Bowie with The Rolling Stones. There are hints of Rundgren in this, too.

The Gratitude Suite

This is a rocking powerhouse that has prog, psychedelia and even things like country and folk music in the mix. It's really potent in terms of its rocking energy at times. It's another great ride with a lot of dynamic range built into it.

 
More CD Reviews
Metal/Prog Metal
Non-Prog
Progressive Rock
 
Google

   Creative Commons License
   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

    © 2024 Music Street Journal                                                                           Site design and programming by Studio Fyra, Inc./Beetcafe.com