Artist: Tiles
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 3.6/5
Tiles are an American band that’s been haunting the world for quite a while with their lukewarm music and driving people to despair. It’s pretty surprising that they ended up on Germany’s Inside Out, a label that backs more progressive metal and revivalist symphonic rock. Tiles don’t really belong in either camp; if anything, you could file them under melodic hard rock.
Still, Tiles weren’t content with just winning back the people who already bought their albums in the past. A pretty impressive bunch of well-known musicians and industry heavyweights came to their rescue, like Alex Lifeson (Rush), Hugh Syme (Rush) and producer Terry Brown (the man behind (yes you guessed it) Rush). That gave the American gentlemen even more exposure, not just in prog rock but in harder rock too. So the Americans are putting themselves out there on several fronts at once, but in the end that very indecisiveness turns out to be the reason for the musical failure. There’s no real focus, because they’re trying to be both prog heads and hard rockers at the same time. While Rush can pull that off very successfully, Tiles still need quite a bit more practice.
Tiles’ music is anything but unlistenable. What’s more, it gets into your ear really fast, but then the melodies and instrumental parts wear out just as fast, and in the end you see that the whole album was built on shaky foundations. Mostly the songs follow the same pattern – a few hard rock parts, then quickly a slower section on acoustic guitar. At first it seems like these combinations will bring some interesting energy to the album, but somewhere around the middle you notice it all follows generic templates. The only real variety comes from the mellotron on Markers and Hide And Seek. You can tell Tiles set themselves high goals, obviously still too high for them. They wanted to please everyone at once, and they may well end up pleasing neither the hard rockers nor the prog crowd. The whole album is played at a high level, I can’t really fault it there. The only thing that bugs me a bit is the vocals, a kind of mix of James LaBrie (Dream Theater) and the late Layne Staley (Alice In Chains).
Tiles won’t move the world with their music, but they won’t do any terrible damage either. Their music lacks real punch and individuality that would let you rank it among the top tier. It simply doesn’t have the elements that would lift them out of the average. What’s even sadder is that you can see how hard they’re trying to be new and fresh. Unfortunately for them, those attempts come off as pathetic, and the effect is plastic and artificial. I won’t claim there’s nothing on Fly Paper worth listening to. More than that, most of their songs are very easy on the ears. But like I said, it all follows tried-and-true formulas, and I doubt they’ll manage to win over any adventurous listener. Quite often they try to create variety by switching rapidly between electric and acoustic guitar, but while Rush did that totally naturally on their new album Snakes And Arrows, Tiles’ attempts feel more forced. Like they don’t know what they are – hard rockers, prog heads, or soft rockers. Fly Paper is a generic, melodic product that didn’t convince me in the slightest.
Lineup
Chris Herin – guitar, keyboards
Paul Rarick – vocals
Jeff Whittle – bass
Mark Evans – drums
Guests:
Sonya Mastick – percussion
Matthew Parmenter – keyboards and vocals
Nate Mills – vocals
additional guests – Alex Lifeson, Alannah Myles, Kim Mitchell, Hugh Syme, Sonya Mastick
Production
Terry Brown
Tracklist
1. Hide In My Shadow (5:43)
2. Sacred & Mundane (5:28)
3. Back & Forth (6:02)
4. Landscrape (4:33)
5. Markers (6:57)
6. Dragons, Dreams & Daring Deeds (8:08)
7. Crowded Emptiness (4:07)
8. Hide & Seek (8:31)
Album length: 49:36
