Let's clear something straight away; I think Paul Gilbert's absolute best always comes from his enormous talent on guitar and very rarely through his singing voice. Nevertheless, the album is a delightful pastiche of different music tempos and genres, in which Gilbert's signature playing style take the listeners into a fancy flight into worldwide music at 360 degrees.
Despite clocking off at approximately 42 minutes, the album offers a fabulous package of 8 covers and 3 originals, all played superbly by Gilbert. From pop classics such as Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" to The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road," to more stomping rock- tempo charged tunes such as Loverboy's "Working For The Weekend" or The Police's "Murder By Numbers," the American guitarist never ceased to amaze through his eclecticism and infinite class.
The record reaches its peak on the originals, though. The album's title track that closes is the only tune sang by Gilbert and what a treat it is! The lyrics are very intimate, almost sounding personal and the sound goes into a crescendo from acoustic to electric like a rising sun. "Shock Absorber" has almost got some Zeppelin-esque echoes, while the slow number "Purple Without All The Red," is a great exercise of simplicity on guitar. It takes the listeners on an imaginary stroll throughon a South-American sea shore, lulled by the sweetness that the melody of the tune carries.
Thirteen solo albums in - and Paul Gilbert always finds the way to amaze anybody by engaging the listeners on a music path that surely, this extraordinary musician will continue to successfully follow for many years to come.
About Our Author: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato is Italian music writer, who has been living in UK since 2002. With an enormous passion for music, and life in general, his interest in the communications began at 11 years old. He worked briefly for local radios in his youth and did a one-off radio show on 2007 on the glorious BBC 6 Music Radio station. Gio started his freelance journalist career in 2012, with Italian artists, and is now mainly focusing on blues artists. To follow Gio Pilato and his all cool radio show, Visit: (RTL 102.5 Cool (Webradio)): http://www.rtl.it/Cool
