Theme from a Perfect World — a biased review
I’m already listening to the album for the third time and I’ve somehow managed to stay focused on my work. I’ve only picked up the guitar once, I swear.
A bit of personal introduction
I’m listening to instrumental music mainly. Guitar being the favorite one, the one I also play. For the past few years whenever one of my heroes released an album I was quite disappointed. Starting with ‘Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards’ by Joe Satriani (2010) I’ve usually listened to the album for the first time and forget about it for a long time. Same goes for ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ (2013) and ‘Shockwave Supernova’ (2015) or ‘Vibrato’, ‘Stone Uphill Pushing Man’ by Paul Gilbert etc. But with the time being these songs grew on me. I’ve listened to them more and more and in the end I’ve sometimes changed my mind about them. ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ become a part of my daily playlist (before Discover Weekly was implemented).
Same thing happened with Andy, but earlier. I was not a big fan of ‘Resolutions’. I didn’t like the tone of the guitar, more bass than I was used to, fewer really energetic songs, who knows what else. But there’s been a time in my life that I’ve almost stopped playing guitar (at the beginning of collage, that’s stuff for another story). But then accidentally I’ve stumbled upon a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrS1cKBGhLA and immediately picked up the guitar again, never stopped playing since. This lick is from #1 song on ‘Resolutions’. That made me re-listen to this album again and man, don’t I love it now. As my father is a huge The Beatles fan, that’s what I’ve been listening to since I’ve been probably one, ‘Playing Sgt. Pepper’ felt great, and simple, one guitar, that’s what we love.
OK, so that wasn’t the review of the CD, but certainly a good introduction, because with ‘Theme from a Perfect World’ that dislike at the beginning didn’t happen.
I fell in love with the album from the first note.
Oh man, doesn’t it start good? ‘Ascension’ — A slow introduction of all the instruments playing. We get the the rhythm guitar, the harmonics from the lead, gentle bass and snare. The tone of the guitar is so melodic, right between ‘Ear X-tacy’ and ‘Resolutions’, not too much gain, a little more middle tones. The melody is simple, yet entertaining, with a little twist towards the end.
‘Winterland’ gives us a clean beginning, with a strat sound. Then the gain knob is turned slightly more and the energy starts flowing. Andy gives us a lot of those double string bends that I love so much. A bit of octavy sound near the end. Well balanced track.
‘Theme from a Perfect World’ — the longest track on the whole album is kind of a combination of two songs. The second one starts and roughly 3 minutes in. Change of riff and dynamics with a crazy solo. Just to go back to how the song began after some time.
‘Sanctuary’ — a song recorded for a music store owner’s Andy knows. Start with harmonics and bass guitar, just to kick us with a great 90’s rock riff after 1 minute. After that we get another short riff that is actually very similar to the main theme of #1 song.
‘The Next Voice You Hear’ — a the first melancholic tune on this album. It has a great solo in the middle, which starts with the slightly more overdriven guitar playing the melody. Fun fact: Timmons wrote this song for a fan in a coma, who then regain consciousness after listening to the song, coincidence ?
‘Lift Us Up (Something Wicked This Way Comes)’ a long title for quite a long song. It has a very happy melody, that Andy says reminds him of fans form Spain and Italy cheering in between his songs. Great ending with ambient sounds.
‘That Day Came’ when Andy’s cat passed away. That made him write this song, a sad memorial of a loved creature, nothing more to say. Great guitar sound throughout the whole fretboard, that something Andy’s known for. The last song ‘On Your Way Sweet Soul’ is also written in memory of a cat.
‘Firenze’ — a peaceful slightly distorted riff, which I think I like the most of the whole CD (the riff itself). No classic solo on this one, but fantastic fill-ins.
Conclusion
There’s a review on Amazon giving this 3/5 stars and saying:
“ Not as good as resolution, but still very good”
I can’t disagree more. I had my ups and downs with ‘Resolutions’, and now I think it’s great, but ‘Theme from a Perfect World’, despite being slightly different, more mature than previous records is just as good. As people get older their music changes, but it doesn’t mean it stops being great. I’m not going to rate it (I’d give 5/5), just because I love Andy and his works, but that’s an album everyone should listen to, even somebody who doesn’t fancy instrumental music, to understand that lyrics aren’t the only way to express feelings. (spotify link below)
K
