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Non-Prog CD Reviews

Vinyl Floor Vaudeville Review by Gary Hill There is quite a wide range of sound here. A lot of it falls into what many would call a “classic rock” sound, but still it’s not a narrow classification. While not everything here will totally wow you, there’s nothing weak enough to warrant a “skip.” This is quite a solid set with some stellar moments. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Change the Song Powering in hard rocking, there is a lot of space rock in the mix here. The guitar solo section grounds it in more straightforward hard rock sounds.

Shift In a lot of ways this scorching hot rocker feels a lot like it’s connected to the opener. It has a real 1970s hard rock sound. It’s a killer tune that I like a lot.

Time Your Life In some ways this is slower and mellower than the two openers. Yet, it’s not a mellow song by any means. Sure, there are some mellow sections, but this rocks. It’s got a lot of psychedelia in the mix, too. It works out to a section that has a lot in common with symphonic prog later, too.

Castles Here we get more of a melodic rocker. This is good, but a bit forgettable.

Angel of Crime Somehow at times this makes me think of The Cure a bit. That’s a good thing. This one gets a parental advisory on the lyrics. Some of the soaring sections later seem to wander toward modern progressive rock.

Just a Shadow This is sort of a shuffling number that has a lot of 1980s sound in it. I like it, but it’s a little lackluster compared to some of the rest here.

Colorblind This is absolutely a modern progressive rock piece. It has a bit of a tastefully strange element to it and some great layers of sound. I like this one a lot. There are some hints of something a bit like Pink Floyd at times. This is such a great song. In fact, I’d say it might be my favorite here.

Nation Underground A moody and rather pretty piece, this is very much like a lot of modern progressive rock. It’s one of my favorites here.

Sensational Freedom Country Estate Rather raw hard rock, this has some psychedelia, some punk and a lot more built into it. It’s a screamer.

Fallen Leaves This melodic rocker has a lot of Beatles in it. It also seems closely tied to both modern progressive rock and folk prog. It’s another great tune.

Basket of Kisses With multiple layers of chorale styled vocals, this one is strictly acapella.

The Abyss World music, folk and an almost sea shanty like vibe combine on this tune. It’s odd, but also quite cool. It reminds me a bit of Camper Van Beethoven. At the end of the piece some silence ensues for a while. Then a short musical theme emerges to take the disc to the close.

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