Search - Michael Hedges :: Road to Return (24bt)

Michael Hedges's first solo album in four years not only reaffirms his status as an acoustic guitar virtuoso but also reveals a growing mastery of percussion, keyboards, and flute. Unfortunately, his instrumental and compositional skills are too often obscured by opaque vocals and esoteric lyrics. The eight songs and two instrumentals reflect a quest for spiritual and psychic wholeness, but Hedges's guitar evokes that pursuit far more eloquently than his voice. For example, "Sister Soul" has a long instrumental introduction where his melodic variations and competing rhythms create a stirring drama of yearning. Once the vocals enter, however, nearly two minutes into the song, they undermine the tension rather than reinforcing it. The new age jargon about "the sister soul deep inside of me" has none of the freshness of the guitar work. Too many numbers on the album suffer from a similar dynamic. --Geoffrey Himes