Description

If you were expecting a Rush sound on Alex Lifeson's solo album, you'll be sorely disappointed-- I know I was shocked when I first spun this CD nearly ten years ago now-- a loud, aggressive, angry sound emerges-- Lifeson's melodic playing was pushed aside for a muscular stance, and Edwin's vocal, a wailed, angry beast, countered Lifeson's guitar.

Now mind you, the entire record isn't quite like that, but my eyes popped out of my head. Still, having had time to evaluate the record for a long while since then, its not a bad attempt at a solo record, but ultimately its success is limited. Stillmore…, credit to Lifeson for choosing to pursue a direction well outside of the expectations of Rush's guitarist.

The main band on this album consists of Lifeson on guitars, bass, and synths, guitarist Bill Bell, drummer Blake Manning, and vocalist Edwin (of I Mother Earth). Together, this ensemble produces five songs (although Lisa Dalballo sings one of them) and further joins Lifeson and his son, Adrian Zivojinovich (programming) on two further tracks. The songs featuring the band are generally straightahead rock, with a decidingly alternative bent. Many of these songs sound quite a bit like material from "Counterparts" or "Test For Echo", but with a heavier bent and more guitar drive. Edwin's voice is night-and-day from Geddy Lee, which furthers the distinction (Dalballo sounds quite a bit like a young Lee at times, however). The material is reasonably successful, "Promise" is both the most straightforward of the songs and the most successful, with a great driving backbeat and killer riffing courtesy of Lifeson. "Sending a Warning" is also a great song, Edwin seems particularly vested in this one, the energy behind his vocal is stunning. The rest of the material is harder edged-- almost as if Rush had never abandoned their metal sound but sort of met the Melvins halfway instead. Its ok, but not spectacular.

Beyond this material, the two songs from Lifeson's son are a bit more interesting-- essentially Lifeson uses some programmed rhythms and synth sounds his son assembled and overdubbed his band. "At the End" is really interesting, a story of a man lost after his love's death, spoken by Lifeson and featuring some stunning, layered harmonies at the end.

Similar in tone to "At the End" is Lifeson's "Victor"-- setting Auden's poem to music, its another largely electronica piece with Lifeson doing a spoken word narration, he really captures the feel of the poem wonderfully, and this may be the most successful piece on the album.

There's also a pair of decent instrumentals that showcase Lifeson's guitar playing and feature rhythm section Peter Cardinali on bass and drummer Blake Manning, the second of these two, "Shut Up Shuttin' Up", features a bizarre spoken rambling by Lifeson's wife and her friend about habits their men have. As bizarre as it sounds (and as obnoxious as the guitar playing references are), the song is spectacular and Lifeson pulls all the stops on the guitar. One last piece is an instrumental duet between Lifeson and Bell ("Strip and Go Naked") that kind of plods and never really gets anywhere.

Overall, the album is decent, if not entirely satisfying. It has enough good stuff on it to make it worth tracking down, especially for a Rush fan.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

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Cover Info:

Title:

Alex Lifeson - Victor (1996) Retail CD

Part:

CD

Dimensions:

795 x 800 px

Size:

78 KB

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07/08/07 by VNV

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