Label: Phil Lanzon Ditties/Cargo Records
Release date: 23.02.2018
Producer: Simon Hanhart
Album length: 54.16 min
Genre: Art Rock
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Phil Lanzon has been playing keyboards for English art rock legends Uriah Heep for years now, 33 of them to be exact. Where all he’s played and who he’s worked with carries the biblical weight of an entire galactic music patriarchy. Still, the right moment to record and release a solo studio album of his own never came along. After Uriah Heep put out their latest (and still current) studio album “Outsider” in 2014 and then spent a good while keeping fans around the world happy with a ton of gigs, the time had finally come for Phil to get cracking on all those ideas his private music archive had been steadily bulging with.
The album “If You Think I’m Crazy” deserves your full attention. This isn’t some distant stylistic replica of the bands Phil once played with or still plays with (Uriah Heep). It’s a hugely varied and colorful set of ten carefully composed, subtly arranged tracks that give the record real dynamic momentum. Lanzon called in some top-shelf musicians to the studio, and they poured their talents wholeheartedly into the very core of the songs. Just name three of them, John Mitchell, Craig Blundell and both Cottle brothers, and it quickly becomes clear that Lanzon wanted to deliver the very best he knows and can do on his studio debut. Total perfectionism, in other words.
“If You Think I’m Crazy!” is (put in the “simplest” terms) an art rock record. And you’ll find everything on it. From tighter, hard-rock-minded moments to flirtations with gospel, world music, even pastoral touches (I Saw Two Englands), plus country and blues, and of course everything music connoisseurs expect from Phil. That means elements of progressive rock, the old-school, pioneering kind. If you’re hunting for any parallels with the sound and work of current Uriah Heep, the closing symphonic mini-epic treat Forest could carry a few of them to the “Wake the Sleeper” era of the band, and Lanzon’s occasional use of the Hammond B3 organ especially stirs up Heep associations. The album looks mostly on the bright side, so the expected dose of typically British Isles melancholy takes a back seat this time. Lanzon also does a very decent job as lead vocalist. He’s not the only one on the album, though. The opener Mind Over Matter hints that this record is a musical story all of its own, and what gives it that distinctiveness is the vocal contribution of Arena and It Bites singer and guitarist Jon Mitchell. It’s a symphonic, epic art rock requiem that surprises you big time as it unfolds: melancholic in the verse, then it catches fire in a mighty, pompous chorus where vocal choirs join in richly. Mitchell remains a vocal oddity, his tone fits neo-prog and alternative rock alike, which is what makes him special. Beyond that, Mitchell’s magical guitar playing makes up the biggest share of this album, and with his refined, filigree sonic brilliance he counts as one of the most in-demand studio musicians on the British Isles. The late John Wetton knew this very well too, since Mitchell constantly worked on his solo studio efforts, as well as on the Icon project.
“If You Think I’m Crazy!” is not an album you conquer in a single listen. It’s extremely lively and packed with small details that Lanzon obsessed over while building the arrangements. Lots of finesse, then, and the sound is richly woven together from many instrumental palettes. The album also shows off Lanzon’s neoclassical side, with bombastic orchestral arrangements and a hunt for symphonic grandeur. On this record Lanzon does a really great job bridging different musical genres. This fine musician also takes care of a varied range of keyboard work, which adds even more to the album’s liveliness. Every time you spin it in the CD player, Lanzon’s perfectionism and his layered musical polish will keep you busy, gratefully, and suck you right back in. This was an album you could expect to be very solid, but Phil blew past those expectations and delivered a truly high-quality record, one where you can’t pin a single artistic slip on him. Still, all this praise should be taken with a grain of salt. Lanzon plays it very safe from the get-go. He moves within a tried-and-tested arsenal of his own arranging, where he feels comfortable and at home and has it fully under control, so the album doesn’t have a shred of experimentation or the odd bit of avant-garde clowning around, or eclectic “digs.”
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Mind Over Matter
2. Kelly Gang
3. I Knew I Was Dreaming
4. I Saw Two Englands
5. Step Overture (instrumental)
6. Lover’s Highway
7. Donna & Joe
8. Carolin
9. The Bells
10. Forest
Lineup:
Phil Lanzon – Hammond B3, piano, Rhodes, Wurlizer, Geoshred, vocals on tracks 4 and 10.
GUEST MUSICIANS
Richard Cottle – arrangements, orchestrations, keyboards
Craig Blundell – drums
Laurence Cottle – bass guitar
John Mitchell – guitar, vocals on tracks 1 and 3
James Graydon – acoustic guitar
Sarah Joy – pedal steel, banjo
Joe Atkins – “piccolo” trumpet
Andy Makin – vocals on tracks 2, 6, 7 and 9
Andy Caine – vocals on track 8
