Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: It Bites
Label: Inside Out Records
Released: 2008
Rating: 4/5
Cult British prog pop fusionists It Bites are back with “The Tall Ships”, their first studio album in almost twenty years. Now that it’s out, it’s safe to say the move paid off and that this is a successful comeback for the legends. In the time between the split in 1989 and the reunion, charismatic singer and guitarist Francis Dunnery left, deciding he’d rather focus on his family and solo career than set off on another musical adventure. The rest of the gang didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs and found his replacement in studio workaholic John Mitchell.
Prog rock fans probably know Mitchell best as the excellent guitarist of neo-prog outfit Arena, but he’s also a current and former member of a whole bunch of other bands and projects, like Kino, The Urbane, Blind Ego, Frost and so on. John had been a devoted It Bites fan since his teens, so it’s no surprise he grabbed the offer with both hands when keyboardist John Beck and now-former bassist Dick Nolan approached him. On “The Tall Ships”, the bass duties were handled by Mitchell and Beck themselves instead of Nolan. It Bites didn’t stay a trio for long. In the meantime they’ve found a proper bassist in Lee Pomeroy (ex-Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Take That), who’s supposed to successfully fill Nolan’s shoes. Nolan got the boot for being too laid-back about recording new music.
Stepping into Dunnery’s shoes was a hugely thankless job for Mitchell and, as usually happens when you replace irreplaceable vocal charisma, the move split the fanbase into two camps. Those who see it as outrageous, and those who waited with interest to see what the new look would bring. They got a partial answer with the very solid live album “When The Lights Go Down” (2007), where Mitchell, with his fine vocal takes on It Bites classics, proved he’s without a doubt a quality choice (his guitar chops were never in question, since he’s one of the best guitarists in modern prog).
With his melancholic, inward-looking singing style, rooted in the best tradition of vocalists like Peter Gabriel and Ray Wilson (both ex-Genesis), he’s even a bit similar to Dunnery, though he lacks his charisma, theatricality and above all his sense of humor. Thanks to Dunnery, the old It Bites were always masters of cheeky arrangements and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and they never took themselves too seriously, whereas Mitchell’s version on “The Tall Ships” brings a somewhat, let’s say, more serious and melancholic vibe, which is also their one major weakness.
In everything else they once again successfully follow their trademark tradition of creating deeply romantic atmospheres through rich symphonic arrangements, multi-part guitar passages and subtle vocal harmonies, which charm the listener with their remarkable flow between more complex instrumental sections and highly melodic transitions and choruses. A great example of this blend of raw romantic nostalgia, so typical of them, and some of the instrumental finesse Mitchell brought with his style is the title track, easily one of the best pieces on the album. The interplay between his guitar and John Beck, who is still a master of incredibly warm, layered orchestral arrangements on his keyboards, is at an enviable level throughout the whole album.
A great example of a song that fully follows the golden It Bites days is the highly nostalgic-romantic “Fahrenheit”, which might even have been a hit back in the day. Mitchell also nails the old Dunnery magic here, even in the high registers. Throughout “The Tall Ships”, though, you can really feel his contribution to the songwriting and individual arrangements, as the instrumental sections now sound noticeably more complex than they used to, and you can find plenty of stylistic parallels with his past project Kino, which is really no surprise. Probably also because Beck was once his comrade in Kino. The closing 13-plus-minute epic “This Is England” confirms they’re increasingly drawn to more complex and more ambient waters, getting closest to classic symphonic prog rock à la Genesis.
“The Tall Ships” is a very successful record that effectively presents the new face of these almost written-off masters of prog pop fusion, who gained a more than needed new creative spark with Mitchell in the lineup, and you can feel it from start to finish. Mitchell’s instrumental and creative partnership with Beck is truly a dream, so it’s fair to expect even better results from it in the future. Apart from, as mentioned, a good pinch of humor, “The Tall Ships” lacks nothing that wouldn’t remind you of their best days. There’s enough of their old magic on it to satisfy most longtime fans, but it would be completely pointless to compare it with the albums from Dunnery’s era, which in their cheekiness remain a thing of their own. They’ll have a very hard time ever topping those.
Still, with this record they convincingly prove that even in their new form they remain one-of-a-kind oddballs, too pop these days to score any big commercial success and not prog enough to satisfy the eternal experimental purists. Just like their old incarnation, the new It Bites are a real treat for all broad-minded music gourmets and for everyone who misses bands like Genesis, The Alan Parsons Project, Fish-era Marillion and Queen (and by that I mean the real Queen with Freddie Mercury, not the modern project with Paul Rodgers).
Line-up
John Mitchell – vocals, guitar, bass guitar
John Beck – keyboards, bass guitar, backing vocals
Bob Dalton – drums, backing vocals
Production
It Bites
Track list
1. Oh My God (5:47)
2. Ghosts (4:45)
3. Playground (5:32)
4. Memory Of Water (4:49)
5. The Tall Ships (6:17)
6. The Wind That Shakes The Barley (8:12)
7. Great Disasters (4:59)
8. Fahrenheit (5:16)
9. For Safekeeping (5:27)
10. Lights (4:54)
11. This Is England (13:34)
Album length: 69:32
