Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Kotzen, Richie
Label: Headroom-Inc
Release: 2017
Duration: 40:00
Rating: 4/5
Richie Kotzen is one of those musicians who can do pretty much everything on their own, and does. A phenomenal guitar virtuoso and vocalist first and foremost, after his stint with the rock supergroup The Winery Dogs he’s turned his creative focus back to his solo career. The result is his 21st studio album, »Salting Earth«.
After »Cannibals«, which came out two years ago, you could have expected just about anything from Kotzen. That album had a streak of experimental adventurism that totally caught the music world off guard, his base of loyal fans in particular. »Salting Earth«, on the other hand, is a real gem in the sense that it could be a prime candidate for the solo studio album that best captures the full artistic picture of Richie Kotzen. For Kotzen there are no creative roadblocks. The man is constantly writing and creating new music, new poetry. Some good ideas get archived and wait a long time to reach their final form, but Richie can also spontaneously create a brand-new song in a few hours. Head to tail. With all the arrangements, vocals included, of course. The new album is thus a mix of old recordings (Make It Easy, Thunder) and brand-new compositions. It delivers a truly brilliant insight into the career Kotzen has walked. Keep in mind that, along with a colorful history of collaborations with various eminent names on the world’s musical map, the man has played with Poison on one side and worked with none other than jazz giant Stanley Clarke on the other.
So »Salting Earth« offers a hugely successful and diverse set of musical ideas, where the subtle genre-blending stands out again, something that in the character of Kotzen’s songwriting, thanks to his stylistic-compositional finesse, you can often barely detect or pick apart. Even though Kotzen presents himself on these songs as an incredibly effective genre fusionist, once again deftly melting together elements of blues, soul, (hard) rock, funk, jazz and pop, the common denominator of all the songs is the same: outstanding musical optimization and infectious listenability, which makes it easy to line up quite a few potential hit candidates on this album, ones that could get plenty of radio play without much trouble. Especially if it were the eighties.
The album has a vivid compositional richness, and the moods are just as varied, stringing together dynamic upheavals throughout in their dramaturgy. Kotzen’s extraordinary emotional immersion shines at full force again as he approaches the vocals, once more bringing all the emotions and passions to perfect life with them. Over the years Kotzen has become a brilliant singer, defined in part by that vivid “black soul” contour, which gives him a unique vocal character. This isn’t the album where Kotzen puts his guitar playing front and center. This time the guitar is often even in a supporting role. In My Rock, the piano takes the lead, and This is Life and the closing Grammy develop in a similar way. The album opens with its darkest and longest track, End of Earth, where Kotzen settles scores with the demons of the past and finally banishes them with an extraordinary extended outro, where the grandmaster once again astonishes with his filigree-soft touch, leading the drama of the song into a closing, mood-driven crescendo with a stunning solo.
A thrilling new chapter in the career of this wildly prolific, multi-layered, seasoned musical “multi-tasker” and producer. Once again he played everything and sang everything himself. Over the years he’s pushed all his skills to their artistic zenith, and it shows in the most genuine way on “Salting Earth”! The album’s sound feels organic, often so compact that it seems like a whole band is performing the individual songs (e.g. the opener End of Earth, Thunder,..). A gorgeous new album, then, one that will definitely delight and please all of Kotzen’s fans, and at the same time one with which all the curious souls who don’t know Kotzen yet can start exploring his colorful discography with peace of mind.
Richie Kotzen – End of Earth (official video):
Lineup
Richie Kotzen – vocals, guitar, piano, drums, bass guitar, programming, all arrangements
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Julia Lage – backing vocals on track no. 7
Production
Richie Kotzen
Tracklist
1. End Of Earth
2 Thunder
3 Divine Power
4 I’ve Got You
5 My Rock
6 This Is Life
7 Make It Easy
8 Meds
9 Cannon Ball
10 Grammy
