Search - Echolyn, Weston :: This Is My Halo

Amazing Solo CD

Tracy Shew | Renton, WA USA | 07/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Echolyn fans will likely be the only ones to pick up this solo CD by vocalist Ray Weston, which is a huge shame. Echolyn, a long-suffering progressive unit, has more recently started incorporating pop and alternative rock elements into their music, causing some criticism from their more die-hard fans. Ray Weston's solo outing shows even more of that, abandoning most of the usual musical precision and tight, intricate structures for a much more straight-forward (but still highly experimental) pop/alternative/classic rock approach. The effect is sort of like what would happen if half the members of the 1960s Moody Blues got together with Warren Zevon (for lyrics) and a couple of people from Pearl Jam to try to make a record. Ray does (to my ear) sound a bit like Justin Hayward, vocally - an effect underscored here by what sounds like mellotron on a couple of tracks. The end results are never bland or repetitive, though, but fresh, experimental and, in a few places, achingly beautiful, with a simpler (but always varied) musical arrangement being continually mixed against sweeping, listener-friendly chord structures. This would be an excellent inroads for a listener to experience the incredible creativity of Echolyn's front-man - a secret only a few thousand record-buying fans have known for the last two decades - but for whom the usual extreme musical acrobatics of progressive structures would be too repetitive or loud and grating on the ear. We can only hope that we hear more solo work from Ray, and especially that Echolyn's new pop-rockish approach - honed to its perfection here - opens them up to a wider fan base."