Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Soleil Moon
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 62:55
Rating: 3.5/5
West coast AOR is knocking on the door again with the comeback Soleil Moon album On the Way To Everything. It’s the band’s second studio statement, and we’ve waited a full 13 years for it, which is how long it’s been since their debut »Worlds Apart« (1999).
Soleil Moon is basically a duo made up of keyboardist John Blasucci and singer Larry King, formerly the vocalist of the Michael Thompson Band (Michael Thompson returns the favor on this album, contributing some of the guitars to the new Soleil Moon record).
Larry King and John Blasucci are well-known names on the American music scene. Larry King is a multifaceted musical talent (composer, producer and singer) who in 1997 conceptualized a forum called ‘The Larry King Orchestra’. That ensemble of 11 hand-picked musicians gave Larry the foundation for the Soleil Moon project, which he later set up together with Blasucci. Blasucci currently plays keys for former »Styx« man Dennis DeYoung, and over his career has worked with some of the most prominent musicians out there, including Richard Marx, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Josh Groban and ‘N Sync. The debut »Worlds Apart« caught on well when it came out, especially with the title track and the songs »Willingly« and »Never Say Goodbye«, which got heavy rotation on radio stations. That the album didn’t slip past the masses completely unnoticed is also confirmed by the cover of »I’d Die For You« by the German melodic rock project Place Vendome (with Unisonic vocalist Michael Kiske in the lineup).
If we take it as a starting point that Soleil Moon is a project of musicians who are, at their core, first a singer and a keyboardist, the album’s pop-heavy lean no longer comes as a surprise. Through its art lens, »On The Way To Everything« also takes in a wide range of bands tied to the AOR genre one way or another. From Kansas (the thematically dynamic Freedom – the definitive peak of the album, especially if you pair it with the instrumental continuation of the song Burn), to Toto (listen to the Steely Dan-style intro in the title track). Where there’s Toto, Mecca is close, and the Kansas hints can be stretched to the offshoot project Native Sons, then to yet another Kansas spin-off, the band Mastedon, led by well-known Christian rocker and former Kansas singer John Elephante, and even Seventh Key, the band of Kansas bassist Billy Greer (the song Down). Larry King is a Christian-raised lamb, which on a secondary level also ties him to the Kansas connection and Kansas-flavored projects/bands. The album’s west coast AOR character, which is otherwise artistically intricate, sophisticated and splendidly laid out in its sonic building blocks, is cemented by the closing Here I Am, where Soleil Moon get close to Survivor’s creative starting points.
The melody-laden, full-blooded album rests on clear blues foundations, which act as the sturdy elemental tissue Soleil Moon’s music grows from. After the art-pop AOR development of the opening with Histoy Repeats Its Pages and the title track, the album calms down quickly. Too quickly. That robs it of a bit of the dynamics it needs. Blackbird, a pleasingly acoustic “sedative,” would have been a great closing note for the album, and what really saps the momentum is the sugary dedication right after it (probably to the daughter of one of the duo’s two members) in the ballad Goodnight Irene, where the album, with King’s wrist-slitting overdoing of emotional outpourings and the arrangement’s predictability of reheating old soup, simply buckles. »Work that soul, man, till it hurts!« A step too far for the album, and at best a song in the range of an optional bonus and nothing more.
The intimate Colorado works the opposite way in this respect. The King-Blasucci duo steps forward again, and the song settles into an unmistakable “heartland” music vibe, which Native Sons fans will once again prick up their ears for. In that setting King’s sensitive, full-bloodedly feeling vocal sounds pleasing and, in the dose of pathos it projects, acceptable, especially when you compare it with the painful overdoing in Goodnight Irene.
»On the Way to Everything« is an excellently produced album of 11 songs with a high degree of variety among them, which constantly mingles skillfully with artistic flexibility, enriched by the abundance of the instrumentalists’ playing, Blasucci’s exceptionally lively keyboard arranging and Larry King’s inspired, colorful, soulful singing. The high-profile instrumentalists on board even include the one-and-only bassist Leland Sklar, who has lent his services to Phil Collins as well as Toto. There’s also former close Zappa collaborator Vinnie Colaiuta , who has also played for Joni Mitchell and Sting. In short, musical aces who knock out the studio job with left-hand routine and great distinction.
»On the Way to Everything« is a must-hear for all fans of the bands cited in this review. It’s a solid piece of work that, over its running time, doesn’t quite hold the coherence of comparable modern studio efforts in the west coast AOR / melodic rock vein. The art component is clearly and pleasingly out front, but a pinch is missing . A pinch of more decisively pronounced build-up of moods from verse – chorus to an atmospheric climax, one that would ignite more intensely in the chorus melodies. The feeling of this shortfall is deepened by three awkwardly placed ballads in the tracklist, and also by the atypical choice of an instrumental in the middle of the album.
Lineup
Larry King – vocals
John Blasucci – keyboards
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Thompson – guitar
Gerey Johnson – guitar
Chris Siebold – guitar
Craig Bauer – guitar
Richard Patterson – bass guitar
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Dave Hiltebrand – bass guitar
Steven Rodby – bass guitar
Khari Parker – drums
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Tom Hipskind – drums
Production
Larry King & John Blasucci
Track list
1. History Repeats It’s Pages (4:36)
2. Love the Way You Love (5:10)
3. On the Way To Everything (3:40)
4. Blackbird (2:32)
5. Goodnight Irene (5:47)
6. Freedom (4:28)
7. Burn (2:35)
8. Down (3:10)
9. Colorado (5:05)
10. Move On (5:22)
11. Here I Am (3:59)
12. Ohio* (6:42)
13. Calling on the World* (6:02)
14. I’d Die For You* [Incl. Orchestral Introduction] (6:16)
*… Bonus tracks
