Guitar virtuoso records instrumental album that is one step too far for me
The Calling --- Neal Schon --- 2012 (Frontiers)
Come on, everybody knows Neal Schon. Whether you know him as a Journey fan or by reputation, he's been responsible for some of the true classic guitar solos in rock, including the sublime outro to "Who's crying now" and that soaraway from the almost-unbelievably recently popular "Don't stop believin'", among many many others. He began his musical career in Santana, playing with them for two albums in the early seventies before leaving to form Journey, one of the most successful AOR bands ever, and has also played with the likes of Sammy Hagar, Joe Cocker, Jan Hammer and Michael Bolton, as well as being in the rock supergroup Bad English with bandmate Jonathan Cain. This is in fact his tenth solo album, but the first I've heard, never mind reviewed.
The title track starts us off, with as completely expected an army of guitars, very seventies hard rock, with percussion supplied by Journey's Steve Smith. There's something of classic Hendrix in Neal's guitar licks, and keyboard accompaniment is provided by Igor Len, who's well known as a composer and producer of film soundtracks, classical and jazz musician who has previously partnered up with Schon. Guitar instrumental albums can be a little wearing, particularly when the artist injects some jazz fusion into proceedings, and I have to admit my mind is beginning to drift already. I find a keyboard/synth instrumental album much more involved and easier to keep my attention on, but as we move into the second track, scarily (in my case) named "Carnival jazz", I can feel myself already losing interest.
But let's be fair to the guy and keep an open mind, and an open pair of ears. This track recalls much of his early work as a teenage prodigy with Santana, and you can hear the big guy's influence on his playing, which is still rocky and powerful as hell, but given that he plays all guitars and basses himself it leaves, possibly, less room for innovation and variation than it would had he for instance recruited in an extra guitarist, or even a bass player. Still, it's his album so we'll assume he knows what he's doing. As expected/feared, this track does wander off into jazz experimentation all too easily, which is not good for my struggling attention span. My attempt to stay focussed on the playing is lost completely when Igor Len goes off on one of those annoying jazz piano runs I hate so much, and I find myself kind of tuning out and hoping for better things to come.
"Six string waltz" is a lot better, with a swaying, waving sort of rhythm as the guitars set up a wall of sound in a kind of blues style, much more in the way of melody about this where the last two tracks seemed to me more displays of virtuosity, which it cannot be denied Schon has, but they seemed more like showing off without any real eye or ear for a tune. This one is different, and I could almost hear someone coming in on vocals, which of course doesn't happen. That the guitar playing is first-rate goes without saying, but though I like guitar I'm still finding this a little hard to stay with. Much has been made in other reviews of this album about "Irish fields", but I was expecting something slower, maybe with uileann pipes or flute, and I really don't get the sense of celtic music from it that other reviewers have. It's short, just over a minute, but doesn't raise the bar as I felt sure it might.
It's really hard to review this objectively. Most of the the pieces seem quite similar, and I have no doubt that a guitar player or fan of Neal Schon would enjoy this a whole lot more than I'm doing at the moment, but "Back smash" is another hard rocker with screaming guitar and pounding drums, and I hear little of the keyboards Len is meant to be supplying; in fact, since "Carnival jazz" I haven't really been able to identify any synth passages at all. Okay, I stand corrected: I hear them now, sort of fading up from within the barrage of guitars, and yes some nice Spanish guitar is coming through too, making this song a good bit more palatable. It's also slowed down in the closing two minutes, Schon's guitar smashing out a Brian May riff then there's a sort of arabic flavour to "Fifty-six", Neal renewing his collaboration with Jan Hammer, best known for his Miami Vice theme. I'm reliably informed Schon uses an electric sitar in this, which is fine, but then Hammer or possibly Igor Len rips off another bloody jazz piano solo, and my heart sinks again.
There's some pretty dramatic keyboard work from Hammer and it, er, hammers along at a fine pace, but I'm really starting to think this album is not for me. I bought it because it was Neal Schon, and I do like Journey. I didn't know at the time it was all instrumental; had I, perhaps I would have thought twice about buying it, certainly about reviewing it. I mean, Yngwie is a great guitarist but he employs singers because he knows that no matter how great you are on the axe, it's only the diehards that will listen to you if the album is full of nothing but music. I must say though, "True emotion" does surprise me and perk me up, raising the ante with a totally gorgeous and, yes, emotional guitar piece that would not be out of place in one of Journey's ballads. With soft, flowing synth lines and measured drumming, Schon of course takes centre stage but for the first time on the album (we're halfway through now) makes me sit up and take notice, and gives me hope that this album may be turning a corner. Well, we'll see.
Hammer is back for his final contribution in "Tumbleweeds", and he does a great job on the synth and what I think may be a synth-guitar (do they still call them "key-tars"?) while Schon does what he does best, but lord above! It's almost seven minutes long! That's stretching it, even for the most avid guitar enthusiast, I would think. Certainly is for me anyway. And so it goes. "Primal surge" has some nice odd percussion which sets it briefly apart from the vast body of work here, "Blue rainbow sky" has a nice blues mood to it, large slices of Journey classic material coming through, pretty anthemic really, and then "Transonic funk" is harder blues with quite Rory Gallagher-like guitar and some fine boogie organ from Len. But the highly technical and proficient playing notwithstanding, my boredom and lack of interest is increasing, and the brief flash of hope engendered by "True emotion" has been well and truly snuffed out now. I'm just waiting for the end of the album, and trying to suppress the urge to hit the fast-forward or even stop buttons. Well, that's not fair: it has improved over the last few tracks, but not enough to change my overall opinion of the album.
That opinion is that unless you're a guitarist, or a big big fan of Journey or Neal Schon, or guitarists in general, you're unlikely to be able to make it through this album. Well, I don't know; that's just my own opinion and perhaps you'll feel quite differently. But I definitely found it a struggle. The closer, "Song of the wind II", is a nice little Santanaesque bluesy/jazz laidback number that apparently acts as a sequel to the track off Santana's debut album, which of course Neal played on, and it's nice to see him nod back to his roots and his beginnings. It's a lovely little closer, but I just think that had Neal engaged some vocalist to even take a few of the tracks the album might not have been the hard slog for me that it was.
As it is, I would seriously expect to stay well away from any future or indeed previous Neal Schon solo effort. He's a great guitar player, a great composer there's no doubt, but even he can't make over fifty minutes of guitar music seem like anything other than hard work, and a relief to get to the end of. Look, I'm not going to put Neal Schon down and say this is a bad album; I'm sure it's great, and deserves all the praise it's received in other quarters. It's just not for me.
Sorry, Neal.
TRACKLISTING
1. The Calling
2. Carnival jazz
3. Six string waltz
4. Irish field
5. Back smash
6. Fifty-six
7. True emotion
8. Tumbleweeds
9. Primal surge
10. Blue rainbow sky
11. Transonic funk
12. Song of the wind II