Search - Steve Walsh :: Glossolalia

YOU HAVE TO EXPERIENCE GLOSSOLALIA!

Michael G. King | LOUISVILLE, KY United States | 07/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I just recieved this CD in the mail today, and it is the most phenomenal recording I've purchased in years, maybe ever. I'm going to attempt to write about the music here, but be forewarned, mere words cannot do this recording justice.I can only describe the song GLOSSOLIA by saying "TRIBAL METAL". It's like a savage war chant metallica style. The music, vocal range, and lyrics are like nothing I've ever heard before. Subtle hints of early Santana can be heard if you really stretch your ears.SERIOUS WRECKAGE is beautiful, yet haunting, and then becomes very determined. There is an urgency in this music that you can feel. This song will reach out and touch your very soul and then when you're not looking, smack you right in the kisser.HEART ATTACK is a very festive rocker, but with poetic heartland simplicity. The only way you've ever heard anything like this is if you've seen Bob Dylan accompanied by The Pointer Sisters as his band.KANSAS starts out reminescent of the kind of music heard on Kansas' POINT OF KNOW RETURN and MONOLITH recordings. It progresses far beyond those humble beginnings and closes as if you've entered the den of Hades. The closing vocals sound as if they could be comming from that thing on the CD cover.ANYTHING has a country flavor, but it's just flavoring mind you. This is still rock and roll.HAUNTED MAN could have been a KANSAS song circa MASQUE. Maybe the most like KANSAS of all the songs here.SMACKIN THE CLOWNS is ... forgive me, I am at a loss for words. You'll just have to buy the CD or see what others have said about this song.THAT'S WHAT LOVE'S ALL ABOUT is Steve Walsh in the hood, my brother.MASCARA TEARS starts with a wonderful keyboard opening. Sinatra does rock & roll is about all I can say.REBECCA is great rock tune. This one has a Tom Petty feel to it.Steve Walsh has produced some of the most beautiful, haunting, lyrically intelligent, multi-layered, fluid, and rocking music I've ever heard. And I agree, that most people will never hear any of this on the radio. For an old guy who's starting to resemble Jerry Garcia, rather than the energetic lead singer/keyboardist of KANSAS circa LEFTOVERTURE, Steve Walsh shows all these young turks how to make real music.BUY THE CD!"

The voice of Kansas SPEAKS

Brian Lee Coleman | Carrollton, TX United States | 09/21/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's been twenty-one years since we were treated to the remarkable Schemer Dreamer album, and there will be a tendancy for Walsh fans to hold this album up to it in comparison. My advice: DON'T! Glossolalia is light years and a lifetime of musical and spiritual growth away from Steve's first solo effort. This haunting, inspiring, multilayered and moody collection grabs your attention immediately, and takes you on a journey filled with heart, soul, and hard reality. The title track, a warrior's pledge of defiance, shifts through a multitude of Reznor-like walls of sound that are truly stirring. "Serious wreckage", a hauntingly beautiful song, tells a story of the death of a child by drunk driver, sung wearily by someone who has fought the bottle himself. "Heart Attack" and "That's What Love's All About" stand out as rockers, while "Nothing" presents a simple melody, complete with steel guitar, to compliment the tale of lost love. "Mascara Tears" is a dramatic and Jazzy 6/8 song a la "Perry Mason", and "Rebecca" gently rocks with the soulfulness of "Every Step of the Way". The two standouts of this album, "Kansas" and "Smackin' the Clowns", showcase Walsh & Co-writer/producer Trent Gardner's ability on an epic scale. The former paints a multifaceted picture of the struggle between Indian and White Man, while the latter is a high-powered depiction of the Ringling Brother's circus fire of 1944, as seen through the eyes of a child. Anyone who doubted Steve Walsh's ability to soar vocally will be pleasently surprised, for all of the trademark high notes are here, including the operatic background vocals, which brought a smile to my face. Musically,the album is densely textured and adventurous, moving in directions not typically heard on your average Kansas album. Glossolalia is an exciting piece of work. I am wearing out all of my CD players, because every time I listen, I discover something new. A triumph!"

The Direction Kansas Should have Taken

Snotjello | Midwest | 01/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The best thing to come from the Kansas camp, collectively or solo, in years.



This isn't pure pretentious prog (like Kansas could have been without Walsh's influence); it's raw emotion in expressionistic strokes and colors. Kerry Livgren (Walsh's much-worshipped classic Kansas antithesis) would have made a similar effort sound silly, as he just doesn't bring the same desperate psychology to the table. This is what Walsh always brings compositionally to the Kansas motif; emotion, energy and sonic danger.



Glossalalia isn't pretty, it's not sweet. It's a dark and brooding exploration of the peripheries of one of modern music's greatest voices and under-appreciated writers.



A brilliant album that demonstrates a desire and ability to truly "progress" when many of his contemporaries just like the sound of the word."