STEVE HOWE

The point is nothing really stands out as a killer track rather it is just an album with terrific classical musicianship that blends well as a whole. It has a Cantata, a Concerto, and even the odd Aria with 'Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5'. There is the sound of a banjo on one track and mostly finger picking guitar sounding exactly like Howe's acoustic guitar solos in a Yes concert. The music is backed by symphonic keyboards but drums are absent, bass is absent and you will find zero distortion as far as the guitars. They are always crystal clean and pleasant. It is a nice album that my wife likes me playing but Yes were more inventive and daring than this and so was Howe who has mellowed in his old age with this effort.

Guitarist Steve Howe will always be best known for his monumental contribution to the band Yes, but that hasn't stopped him from continuing his music career into the solo artist realm. Now decades since the release of classics like 'Fragile' and 'Close To The Edge', Howe's music serves to entertain existing fans of his work, rather than create new ones. Nowadays, his music very much reflects his age; no longer are there the complex, bombastic observations he once did with Yes, but soft pieces that would likely best fit under the 'easy listening' category. All the same, Steve Howe's musical brilliance has never run out, and while 'Time' may not have the same longevity and depth of his life's greatest work, it is a perfect album to stay in and listen to throughout a cold winter's night.

At this point in his musical career, Steve Howe's work reminds me greatly of Jeff Beck. A recent album of Beck's, 'Emotion And Commotion', shares its musical formula with 'Time'. Fronted by Howe's immortal lead guitar work, he has brought on a string section to back him up, and the result is closer to contemporary classical music than anything rock-related. As song titles like 'Cantata No. 140' and 'Concerto Grosso In D Minor' are quick to suggest, Howe's main inspiration here is classical music, most specifically; the sort of classical music that might be put on to soundtrack a romantic candlelit dinner. The melodies are pleasantly predictable, and the lush string arrangements of Paul Joyce wash over the listener effortlessly. 'Time' is as beautiful an album as any, but for all of its pleasant bells and whistles, a listener looking for anything even remotely challenging or dynamic will come out empty handed. Steve Howe's guitar work is soulful and tasteful, but upon returned listens to the album, listeners will find that 'Time' offers little in the way of growth or lasting appreciation. Instead, it's an album that serves everything to its audience immediately, and doesn't forget to include a silver spoon and cutlery.

The music is beautiful and pleasant, but harmless. 'Time' really is an album that demands virtually nothing from its listener, but at this point in Steve Howe's career, that seems to be the most refreshing change of pace he could have taken.

The biggest improvement for this album over the last one, without a question, is that Steve is almost silent as a singer, except for some understated, quiet vocals near the end of "All's a Chord," where they're almost an afterthought. In fact, the only other track with vocals is the side-one closer "Look Over Your Shoulder," where Steve employs the services of one Claire Hamill, who sounds so much here like Annie Haslam (of Renaissance fame) that I was convinced it was actually her the first few times I listened to this (until I looked it up and found out it wasn't). The track is a major highlight, by the way, with Claire giving a nice vocal part to an atmospheric rocker full of varied guitar work (the main theme of the album), pulsating bass (also done by Steve) and some powerful drumming from Alan White.

The rest of the album (all instrumental, except for the aforementioned snippet of Howe vocals) is all about showcasing all of the different guitar types and musical styles that struck Steve's fancy, and it's a major breath of fresh air after Tormato had him not sounding his very best (and after Beginnings tried so hard to be prog that it forgot to be good). My personal preference out of the lot is towards the opening "Pennants" (funny that I'd instinctually gravitate towards the tracks with White on drums even before I knew for sure it was him) which starts off on such a rocking note and with such a great guitar tone that I find myself utterly perplexed as to why he couldn't have had a sound like that on Tormato. The song's center is a rock one, held down by White's steady drumming and solid riffage, but it's a great showcase of ideas and themes for guitar and keys, and the variety of guitar sounds pulled out in this track is just fascinating. The variety peak, though, is definitely in the previously mentioned "All's a Chord" (with Moraz on keys and Bruford on drums) where Steve plays eight different kinds (!!) of guitar (to be fair, one is bass, but still) and creates something that works as much more than just a technique demonstration.

The rest of the album is a little background music-y, but I quite like it. The first half (all of the tracks so far mentioned are in the first half) is rounded out by "Cactus Boogie," a fun mix of banjo, Les Paul and pedal steel, and "Diary of a Man Who Vanished" is either really upbeat for a slightly sad number or really mournful for a cheerful number, but a winner either way. In the second half, I find my attention drifting some, but taken track by track, things here are fine. I would say that, if there's a clear mistake, it was in putting the 8-minute "Double Rondo," a decent mix of guitar meanderings with a string arrangement right before the closing cover of the 2nd movement of Vivaldi's "Concerto in D," only because the Vivaldi piece is soooo much better than what comes before it. Of the remaining three tracks, "Meadow Rag" is a fun bit of acoustic rag (I wouldn't want to hear a whole album of this kind of music necessarily, but having one an album is fine by me), "The Continental" is kinda jazzy and bluesgrassy (I guess), and "Surface Tension" is a good bit of acoustic Spanish guitar. Again, not essential listening, but all very nice.

Look, this may not quite be a great album, but it's definitely a very good album, and it's easily in the upper tier of Yes solo albums. Heck, I like it more than Fish Out of Water, and I'm pretty sure that puts me in a minority among fans who care about both. Anybody who's a fan of Steve as a guitarist (and really, why else would people be a fan of him?) should seek this out at some point.

Even without the vocals, though, this is mostly a 3rd-rate 70's prog album (that it's sung by a 4th- rate vocalist only amplifies the problem). I'd say there are two tracks that are clearly a cut above average: "The Nature of the Sea," a nice instrumental (with a good amount of variety in Howe's guitar approaches) that alternately conveys peaceful aspects of the sea and more "energetic" aspects of it, and the title track, which may be a little overlong but has some nice Howe acoustic parts amidst Moraz's orchestrations for winds and strings. It's as prissy as anything, but it has some nice atmosphere, and I don't mind listening to it.

The rest of the album, whether instrumental or with vocals, is really not good. The opening "Doors of Sleep" shows some promise in the opening parts, but Howe's singing is just soooo bad, and the song never really establishes a coherent direction. "Australia" has even less direction and even worse singing, and "Lost Symphony" largely wastes a pretty introduction by going into a brassy shuffle with Howe's bad vocals dominating things way more than they should. On side two, other than "Beginnings," the only other track that I notice for good reasons is "Ram," yet another in Howe's enjoyable finger-picking acoustic jaunts, yet this is definitely nowhere near the level of "Clap." "Will o' the Wisp" is six minutes of boredom, and not even Bill Bruford's drumming contributions on the last two tracks can save them, even if they have some pleasant aspects.

The thing is, I can hear plenty of ideas on here that could have worked to make really good music, but only if they'd been bounced off other people and grafted into other people's snippets of good ideas (I have the same complaint about Jon's solo album during this period too, mind you). As is, most of these ideas have no chance to grow into something great, especially when the singing is such a catastrophe. Only a handful of tracks keep this from being a disaster, and I must strongly recommend for Yes fans to stay away from this.

Well, nothing, if you are New Age fan. I am not, music for relaxation actually does the exact opposite of its intended effect - it makes me irritated and nervous. I don't know how to face it. But it gets worse. Steve's contribution is barely noticeable here. It can be played by any random musician, it's so generic NA that it makes me scream and wish it was all over.

1(-), no understanding here, big letdown.

If you like such tunes as Mood for a Day, Surface Tension, or his acoustic segment on The Ancient (three of y favorites) and want to hear more of that, this is the place to come to. Howe's playing is lyrical and impeccable. This being an all acoustic album, there is little grandstanding with rapid runs and fierce chords. That is not to say all the music is slow, because that is not the case. It is the case, however, that the music overall is pretty mellow. This is an all acoustic offering, you know. It does get dynamic on occasion. Each piece has its own characteristic, yet in the long run, it is difficult to remember one from the other. Only careful listening and noting of titles, along with what is being played, can one distinguish each song. Personally, I find the album absolutely wonderful. The Yes fan will instantly recognize the last three songs, which are adaptations of Your Move, Disillusion, and To Be Over. The production on these songs is a step above the rest of the album, so when Your Move begins it is bright and lively, rich in tone, especially after the distinctly soft preceding piece. Steve even explains a little how he re-arranged these songs for guitar. The careful listener will recognize an uncredited guest playing mandolin on Your Move. Fortunately, he is partially identified as Chris. Now who might that be? To Be Over is a song designed to end an album with. It worked perfectly on Relayer and it works perfectly here. The delicate melody, the rising dynamism, the increasing complexity, and the lyrical cap are all included here, yet it is entirely instrumental. For those who dislike Howe's voice, and there are many of us, the fact this is all instrumental is a blessing. Steve speaks his vision best through his fingers and strings.

Steve Howe's solo work is a mixed bag when taken all together, but I consider Natural Timbre one of his best releases. I always thought of him more as an acoustic guitarist anyway, and he even says he writes most of his music acoustically. If you enjoy the softer side of Prog, or even if you merely enjoy acoustic guitars, I highly recommend you check this one out.

But usually his albums are more a display of his talents than inspired compositions.

This one is not the exception.

Very melodic between crossover a jazz fusion prog and not so close to Yes as symphonic prog Rick Wakeman,s works.

But the melodies are quite boring ...and very similar one to another . There is nothing new in this album.

If you are in a public place(Malls,Supermarkets, Restaurants...etc...) quite enjoyable music to listen and relax.... But if you are are prog rock lover.....boring.

Well but that is nowadays SH line (mostly in his last Asia participations)

2 stars

I like the previous Turbulence but here he does not quite hit the mark. It feels like a sort of family album for him, with both his sons Dylan and Virgil playing around.

16 songs so obviously most of them rather short, thankfully because this makes it more easy- going, and the music is very accessible, not complex, and may sound good, but it does not awake any enthusiasm.

Of course we are talking of Mr. Steve Howe so surely there is quality guitar playing and several of the instrumentals (about 50% of the album) are pretty decent, including the The Clap clone "A Valley of Rocks", but the songs with vocals are in general terribly weak and surely we can not say that this is a good album.

For fans and if you find it cheap it's ok for some of the instrumentals.

In contrast to many other Yes fans, this is personally my favourite solo album of all the others (Fish out of Water, Olias of Sunhillow, Ramshackled, Story of I). Why? The vocals...

Just kidding. The vocals are horrendous, painful to listen to for the most part, but it's almost a sort of camp icon for me. The real highlight of the album is the guitar work and instrumental arrangements. Not many musicians can really grasp musical arrangement like Mr. Howe, and as a result I would go so far as to say that this album is as unique as Olias of Sunhillow.

The album is fantastic in terms of musicianship, from beginning to end. My favourite pick is "The Nature of the Sea" (an instrumental, thank god!), whose guitar work is so intricate I immediately took a liking to this album.

The first two openers, Doors of Sleep and Australia, are excellent musically and pretty terrible in terms of vocals (that doesn't need to be mentioned again). The former is well showcased by Steve on keyboards, and the latter has some... rather interesting vocal harmony arrangements (AUSTRALIAAAAA...) whose workability is a subject of great debate (although, Steve's vocals seem to be their worst here). Lost Symphony is a jazzy, horn-dominated section featuring some strange and hard-to-understand lyricism, a must-listen for any prog-fan.

Beginnings... the title track... this is another instrumental, and one of the best tracks along with "The Nature of the Sea". Featuring Patrick Moraz on piano, this features some very amazing use of 2-note chords from Steve Howe, a very humble display of excellence and really an insight into some of Steve Howe's deeper set of influences.

Will O' the Wisp is an acoustic piece that somehow reminds me of "The Chain" off of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album. There is something about it that I said doesn't need to be mentioned again, but otherwise, this is a great song...

Ram! Ram is excellent, a relief for those who have keeled over the record player / TV for hours listening to "Clap" off The Yes Album / Yessongs video. Featuring an excellent country/bluegrass chicken-picking style that Steve is so well known for, this one is sure to brighten your mood if Steve's vocals are too much for you throughout the album.

Pleasure Stole the Night and Break Away from it All are excellent album closers in almost every way. The rockin' output of both songs is incredible, and the vocals are among the (relative) best on the album, and the latter features Mr. Bill Bruford on drums.

Regardless, I doubt any of you would want to give this album the same rating I did, unless you are a die hard Steve Howe fan like myself.

4 stars.