If the idea of a couple of two-decades-later early-80s arena rockers covering a batch of 60s and 70s classics sounds to you like a prescription for not just disaster, but acute auditory pain, join the crowd. <\/p>\n
Jack Blades is the bassist\/vocalist from one of my least favorite bands of the MTV era, the AOR hit machine Night Ranger (\u201cSister Christian\u201d being more or less the apothesis of this brand of shaggy-haired schlock).\u00a0 Tommy Shaw is the guitarist\/vocalist from one of the late 70s\u2019 guiltiest pleasures, the seemingly indestructible arena rockers Seals & Crofts\u2019 \u201cSummer Breeze\u201d is the perfect opener because it\u2019s simply unbelievable how well this pair of rock hounds pulls it off.\u00a0 The easy-breezey vibe at the core of the song is reproduced faithfully but with just the slightest addition of a rock edge, and the harmony vocals are simply outstanding.\u00a0 Believe it or not, when these guys aren\u2019t busting a gut belting out one of their old bands\u2019 odes to bombast, they\u2019re actually pretty good singers.\u00a0 More importantly, they clearly love — and respect — these tunes.<\/p>\n Classic numbers like \u201cTime Of The Season,\u201d \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d and \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\u201d get similarly faithful and affectionate treatments, with \u201cTime\u201d getting a heavier guitar solo that works beautifully, and \u201cCalifornia\u201d getting a more propulsive tempo that lets Shaw and Blades cut loose a bit more both vocally and instrumentally than a straight reading might have.<\/p>\n Where things get extra-fun \u2013 at least for a prog fan like me \u2013 is when the boys grow a giant pair and take on a couple of trademark prog-rock standards, Yes\u2019 \u201cYour Move\u201d (a.k.a. the acoustic opening section of \u201cI\u2019ve Seen All Good People\u201d) and ELP\u2019s \u201cLucky Man.\u201d\u00a0 Shaw delivers probably the best vocal performance I\u2019ve ever heard from him on the former, in the process proving how much more suited his voice is to this sort of harmony-laden acoustic number than hard-rock cheese like \u201cBlue Collar Man.\u201d\u00a0 Blades does a similarly fabulous job on lead vocals for \u201cLucky Man,\u201d where the boys stick fairly close to the original arrangement and absolutely nail the sweet acoustic riffs at the core of the song.<\/p>\n Not all the takes are faithful recreations; Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cI Am A Rock\u201d gets an interesting treatment where the verses sit on a familiar bed of acoustic strumming while the choruses amp up to power chords.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say it works all that well, but it\u2019s a lot of fun anyway. \u00a0And when they move on to tackle \u201cThe Sound Of Silence\u201d they have the good sense to stick closer to the original and lay down some of the album\u2019s sweetest harmonies.<\/p>\n There are a handful of somewhat oddball cuts towards the end: \u201cOn A Carousel\u201d isn\u2019t in the same league as the rest of the picks in terms of the quality of either the original or their cover, \u201cDance With Me\u201d is a nice fit for Shaw but still a mediocre song, and Steely Dan\u2019s \u201cDirty Work\u201d is a pretty bizarre choice stylistically for a couple of guys whose old bands represent everything that the Dan has made a career out of sniping at.<\/p>\n The awkwardness of these few curiosities is easily forgiven, though, on a disc imbued with as much genuine enthusiasm and craft as Influence<\/i> obviously is.\u00a0 Messr.s Shaw and Blades, my hat\u2019s off to ya. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7968],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40312","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-shaw-blades","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40312"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}