Label: The Music Universe
Release date: 6. 12. 2020
Production: Narada Michael Walden & Neal Schon
Album length: 70.10 min
Genre: Art Rock / Instrumental Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Neal Schon is one of those guitarists everybody has heard at some point in their life. Like it or not. If you’re from the eighties generation, you definitely have. Anyone who follows the man on Facebook got to enjoy hours of Neal’s guitar shenanigans over the past year, streamed live from his webcam. He kept his followers entertained several times a week. In his own style. Unique, razor-sharp and unmistakable. Since the guy just wouldn’t stop – this was the year the joke wore thin and there was once again plenty of time for creative adventuring – a lot of people could guess there was something bigger going on behind it all. An album in the making. Neal announced the news relatively late, barely a month before the official release. Out of the blue. On production and the finer points of the songwriting, including the drumming, Neal got help from his new Journey sidekick, the seasoned and versatile wizard of the studio knobs, who’s also a multi-instrumentalist and composer, Narada Michael Walden.
Neal Schon is the guy who, at the tender age of seventeen in 1971, was already playing with Carlos Santana on Santana’s album “III”. At the end of 1972, he and Greg Rolie founded Journey. The rest is history. For several decades Schon has been known as one of the most influential guitar icons who popularized the sound of rock music, and he was especially key in paving the way for the rise of AOR in the eighties. But Schon is also highly respected by everyone who follows jazz rock fusion, or who simply gets drawn in by adventurous blending of musical genres.
On “Universe” too, Schon’s guitar sound remains a one-of-a-kind original, armed with that magical, elusive touch of towering charisma and a universe of feelings and emotions that define this musician’s heartbeat. The very first track, Something in the Heart, instantly hints that the rest of the material will deliver a very special and distinctive musical experience.
“Universe” is another superb album from this musician. It’s no exaggeration to say that, of all his solo studio documents, this Schon album might be his most honest and all-encompassing, most representative one. The fascinating guitarist put a full seventy minutes of music on it, and it doesn’t bore for even a second. The album mixes new original pieces with Schon’s takes on a few classics. Everyone from The Beatles to Hendrix, Prince, Stevie Wonder (I Believe), Lucio Dalla (Caruso) and even John McLaughlin (Be Happy). That lineup alone hints at the elusive, many-layered artistic range of Neal Schon. In 2020 and 2021, Schon really has nothing left to do that would bring him fame. On the new album he gave himself over to his own pleasure of artistic expression and simply had fun. You can feel it at every turn. It’s an album you keep discovering, it’s so rich in substance. A fascinating theater, or merry-go-round, of many musical ideas that, through cunning cross-genre blending, leave a doubly magical mark.
This already colorful mix of originals and covers, Schon masterfully contrasted by playing them with different approaches. Some he simply recorded in a single take, keeping all the liveliness of the original. Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile and Third Stone From The Sun are examples. For others, he added orchestration, hiring the Magik*Magik Orchestra, with its founder and conductor Minna Choi, among others. Silent Voyage and Lights (originally a Journey song), recorded with the Magik*Magik orchestra, give Neal Schon’s rustling, caressing guitar melodies an exceptionally fitting backdrop. The sonic landscape of the tracks, together with the orchestra’s pastels, gains depth and lush sonic splendor. Prince’s Purple Rain, an especially brilliant and seductive version, Schon laid down on tape in Nashville, with Gary Cirimelli collaborating on the orchestration. It’s a classic that countless artists play, but one that, through Neal Schon’s unique language of guitar playing, gets yet another distinctive stamp of its own. Hey Jude is an interesting blend. In part of the song Schon adds a personal touch, and it’s not even clear that it’s a cover. Neal liked to include this one as a staple encore at his live shows.
An album of many musical faces and impressions that fascinates and enchants, as said. Judging by the title alone, and by the exposé of everything on offer, it’s in all likelihood the most representative work of the character and deeds of this brilliant and elusive guitar ace.
One more tidbit for PRS guitar fans. For the new album, Schon made generous use of his own PRS signature models, the NS-14 and NS-15.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
