ROAD GAMES

Road Games may very well be my favorite album that is 24 minutes long. I can't think of another album in my collection around that length (though Wikipedia classifies this as an EP), so I suppose it wins by default.

Allan has assembled quite a lineup with Jeff Berlin on bass and Chad Wackerman on drums. IOU vocalist Paul Williams returns for one song, and Allan somehow even managed to get Cream's Jack Bruce to sing on a few songs. Holdsworth and Berlin previously played together in Bill Bruford's band, which explains how well the two gel together on this album. Wackerman steps in as if he too had been playing with them for years.

Bringing Jack Bruce in to sing "Was There" and "Material Real" was a nice touch, but when you compare the vocals on these songs to those done by Williams in "Road Games", it makes you wonder why they didn't have Bruce record all the vocals for this album. Besides my issues with the vocals, "Road Games" is a good song built around an unusual sounding guitar riff. Out of these three tracks, my favorite is "Material Real".

"Water on The Brain- Pt. 2" is highlighted by Jeff Berlin's fantastic fretwork via a lengthy bass solo, but I prefer the structure of the album's other instrumentals "Three Sheets To The Wind" and "Tokyo Dream". While my two preferred instrumentals are lower in tempo than "Water", Allan's guitar playing has more beauty in them and the compositions are more melodically interesting. I forget where I've heard it before, but I've heard "Water" with vocals (Paul Williams), and prefer it to this instrumental version.

Regardless of its shortcomings in some areas, Road Games is a 4-star album. If only it was a bit longer.