Search - :: Beyond The Thunder

Neal's softer side

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 07/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This music from Neal could really be appreciated by everyone. You don't have to be a guitarist to appreciate how well Neal plays a melody, or to istantaneously love his fluid guitar sounds and his storyteller approach to this album. It is a sort of "new age" album in a sense, very different from Journey's music for the most part (you can easily understand this from his picture on the album cover which shows him with a Gibson hollow body guitar and not with a Les Paul or with another solid body rock guitar). It is him playing his heart out through the guitar on some calm, exotique and nice compositions that reminds me here and there some things written by Russ Freeman (Espanique, CoolBreeze or Zanzibar for instance). Here Neal is helped by his Journey colleague Jonathan Cain exceptional composer, arranger and keyboard player. What can I add? It is beautiful instrumental music very well played, music that you can enjoy in a lot of situations and that really deserves attention. I own a lot of solo albums from Neal and this is the one that I'd suggest to everyone who wants an album of very beautiful instrumental "guitar" music or that want to own something good from Neal. But don't think to shred guitar. Neal here plays very softly for the most part, making some doublings here and there like he usually does when he plays with Journey too, but this album is about melody and emotion not about show off. He very rarely use full distorted sounds here, instead he tends to gravitate towards clean or soft crunchy sounds .... but here and there his rock soul appears through his long sustained lead sound, and well ... he shines as he usually does! A very nice album I'm listening a lot in these days."