Label: Insideout Music
Release date: February 23, 2015
Production: John Mitchell
Album length: 58.06 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 7.5/10
Lonely Robot is the solo project of guitar wizard John Mitchell, best known as the guitarist of Arena, though over his colorful career he has also played with bands like It Bites, Kino, Frost*, The Urbane, Blind Ego and Gandalf’s Fist, and worked with the late prog rock hero John Wetton, to name just a few of his more notorious musical outings. The guitar virtuoso, who’s also an excellent singer, has always been a huge sci-fi fan and can safely be labeled a ‘geek’, in other words a nerd who worships sci-fi and fantasy literature, movies, video games and so on.
Fittingly, the Lonely Robot debut »Please Come Home«, released in 2015, is packed with futuristic and dystopian lyrics about the rift between humans and artificial intelligence, often laced with typical English sarcasm. Unlike John’s more upbeat adventures with It Bites, most of the material here has a melancholic but not-so-gloomy vibe, which is usually the hallmark of his ‘home’ band Arena. John also rounded up an enviable list of prog rock guests, including Steve Hogarth (Marillion), Peter Cox (Go West, ex-Manfred Mann’s Earth Band), Nik Kershaw and Jem Godfrey (Frost*). The melancholic atmosphere of most of the tracks on »Please Come Home« suits John’s vocals perfectly, which have often been compared to Peter Gabriel (ex-Genesis) and Francis Dunnery (ex-It-Bites), while a bunch of emotionally charged guitar solos prove why he’s one of the most respected guitarists in progressive rock.
Sadly, »Please Come Home« wasn’t the debut most of John’s followers and prog rock fans were hoping for. The quality of the songs keeps swinging between solid and mediocre. Most of the album is ruled by a dark, melancholic and at times downright bleak mood, while most of the lyrics paint visions of a dystopian future in which robots, or artificial intelligence, take control of humanity. The instrumental opener »Airlock«, with its dramatic ambient stamp and epic guitar solo, promises a good start, but the album quickly gets watered down from there. Stylistically it wanders somewhere between neo-prog and space rock, with some prog metal, pop rock and alternative rock elements thrown in as well. All of that is audible on »God vs Man«, a song with huge potential that, thanks to the imbalance between the melancholic and the heavier moments, comes off as pretty dull as a whole.
The slightly more pop-rock-flavored »The Boy in the Radio«, with Peter Cox on lead vocals, has a nostalgically handled main guitar line, but its chorus is just a touch too understated to leave any deeper impression. »Why Do We Stay?« is a melancholic, slightly depressing ballad with guest vocals from Heather Findlay (ex-Mostly Autumn). Sadly, this kind of ballad isn’t a lone case on »Please Come Home« and, despite a solid Mitchell-Findlay vocal duet, it adds a good deal to the gradual dilution of the whole album. Guest female vocals also appear on the title track, which has an overly ‘cheesy’ lyric, and on »Oubilette«, which sounds like something that could have been born in the brain folds of Steven Wison. Both tracks leave mixed impressions even though they contain a few good ideas. You also often get the feeling that certain motifs start repeating, which is pretty unusual for a composer as talented as John. »A Goddless Sea« turns out somewhat better, riding on the wings of a mighty guitar solo and echoing the musical vocabulary of most of Mitchell’s previous bands and side projects. The same goes for »Construct/Obstruct«, a very solid and fun track with a somewhat more optimistic vibe, and the closest the album gets to what John did with It Bites. »Are We Copies?«, whose lyrics touch on the classic sci-fi theme of cloning, is one more proof that the second half of the album is better than the first, but it still can’t rescue the rather average impression »Please Come Home« leaves in the end.
Despite John’s confident vocal and instrumental performance, and plenty of help from the guests mentioned above, »Please Come Home« was no great compositional leap, and it was even a minor letdown for everyone who expected much more from him. The album is far from bad, with superbly played arrangements, a good number of guitar gems and a great vocal performance, but from such a master, with such a rich musical background and songwriting chops, you somehow expected more than what he showed on »Please Come Home«, which later became known as the first part of the so-called astronaut trilogy of albums. The ever-ambitious workaholic John obviously realized this, because (at least so far) every following Lonely Robot album has been better than the last.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Airlock
2. God Vs. Man
3. The Boy In The Radio
4. Why Do We Stay?
5. Lonely Robot
6. A Godless Sea
7. Oubliette
8. Construct/Obstruct
9. Are We Copies?
10. Humans Being
11. The Red Balloon
Lineup:
John Mitchell – vocals, guitar
Nick Beggs – bass guitar
Craig Blundell – drums
Guest musicians:
Peter Cox (Go West) – vocals on track no. 3
Heather Findlay (ex-Mostly Autumn) – vocals on track no. 4
Rebecca Need-Menear – vocals on track no. 5
Kim Seviour (Touchstone) – vocals on track no. 7
Jamie Finch – guitar on track no. 5
Nik Kershaw – guitar solo on track no. 10
Jem Godfrey (Frost*) – keyboards on tracks no. 1 and 5, Chapman stick & slide guitar on track no. 5
Steve Hogarth (Marillion) – piano and backing vocals on tracks no. 4 and 10
Lee Ingleby – narration on tracks no. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and slide guitar on track no. 5
