‘In City Dreams’ (Chrysalis CHR 1148) ****
Uh-Uh. Don’t expect to be
pinned up against the wall by hard-hitting, devilishly dexterous Trower playing this time around. Don’t anticipate a wild, frantic wall-of-sound to emerge, hell for leather, from your speakers because unsubtle
‘In City Dreams’ is not.
In fact, for the first few listenings, you have to struggle desperately not to become – well, uh, kind of – bored. Robin Trower’s new album, his first for long, months,
since last year’s ‘Long Misty Days’, finds the guitarist plus revamped band in Criteria Studios, Miami, USA.
James Dewar, having forsaken his bass to concentrate on singing (this catapulting himself up
there into the Paul Rodgers class in my opinion … but let’s leave that until later), has made way for one Rustee Allen.
The result? A markedly different sound. The rhythm section of Allen and drummer
Bill Lordan is supremely together in a basic, essential way and its inherent funkiness has paved the way for the Trower band to stop in its tracks, shift course and take on an if not radical then quite natural new
direction.
Because funky ‘In City Dreams’ is – funky in a lazy, cosmic, pulsing, effortless fashion. And like I said, for the initial spins it sounds less than stimulating, appears somewhat tedious.
In the beginning, the Trower band seem complacent, they lay back, play safe, apparently unwilling to contribute anything that could be remotely called adventurous.
Surprisingly, however, further
listenings do not serve to automatically induce a state of catatonia – rather ‘In City Dreams’ matures, mellows, improves with association, until ultimately you find yourself falling into the gently loping,
quietly ticking over, slowly simmering vibe and it becomes quite compulsive.
Nowhere do the band work up a steaming rock n’ roll sweat, it is not that kind of album. What does impress you is the empathy /
interaction displayed – like the heartbeat complimenting and controlling the rest of the bodily functions, everything finally sounds and feels so right.
So ‘Cosmic Funk’ for the most part, backbone
twitching, lip pouting stuff, rarely lively, just medium-paced, simple but spectacular. ‘Somebody Calling’ opens the album and sets the pattern for the rest of the proceedings – a lengthy, droning, plucking,
slowly struttin’ introduction leads into Dewar’s opening lyrical gambit, ‘Somebody calling my name, somebody walkin’ over my grave’.
Dewar’s vocals are deeply rounded, quite immaculate – like I
said, Rodgers-Style in their pace and perfection. ‘Smile’, ‘Love’s gonna bring you round’, ‘In City Dreams’ plus maybe a couple of tracks follow in much the same vein – indeed only two cuts are
really radical out of step with the album’s overall mood.
One is ‘Bluebird’, a cloying balled with Dewar adopting a higher voice than usual and singing lines like ‘if I had a voice like thine, melody
like summer wine’. The other ‘Farther on up the road’, is an energy-laden live recording, Trower riffing, soloing with a fair amount of frenzy and as such running against the grain of an otherwise and for want
of a better word laid-back album.
Still, much as I enjoy ‘In City Dreams’, I’m not convinced that the hard core of Trower fans will exactly welcome the album with open arms. The guitarist has been out
of this country for a goodly time now and to return with this American sounding LP may not exactly be a step in the right direction.
One off or not, ‘In City Dreams’ presents Trower in a decidedly
different light. Just try to live with the album for a while, be patient, and perhaps it’ll come right in the end.
Geoff Barton, Sounds |
