OUT IN THE SUN

After Patrick Moraz's excellent debut solo album, "Out in the sun" came as something of a disappointment. For this album, Moraz retained John McBurnie to provide the vocals and write the English lyrics, so the prevailing sound is familiar. The album was partly recorded in Brazil where he lived, the influences of the music of that country once again being apparent. The overall feel though is light with strong pop overtones.

The opening title track is a rather strange mixture of Stephen Stills "Love the one you're with", and melodic synth. The Brazilian rhythms come to the fore for the first time on "Rana Batucada". Although this is an original Moraz composition, its basis in the traditional music of Brazil means it sounds extremely familiar. The remaining tracks on the first side of the album are bland pop rock songs with prosaic lyrics and unexciting melodies. That said, "Silver screen" does have a good synthesiser run to close.

The lyrical quality reaches its lowest point on "Tentacles" with "You tootsie with my tentacles, and churn up my insides". The song is a very ordinary pop number, which lacks even the basis of a hook. "Kabala" is a pleasant instrumental which rarely rises above lounge music. You can almost picture Moraz sitting in a corner of the cocktail bar playing this for hours on end.

"My engine is steaming like I said before oh yeah, I don't know where I'm going, don't you know anymore" indicates that it was not only McBurnie who was struggling with the lyrics. These come from "Love-hate-sun-rain-you", the only track whose lyrics McBurnie did not write. They were written by Moraz and Francois Zmirou, who performs lead vocal on the song. Zmirou's style is much more rock orientated giving the track a much rougher style. Unfortunately, this does not help any, the song being very ordinary.

The final track, "Time for a change" is all too true in terms of the album. Fortunately, Moraz does introduce change, by reverting to a generally more prog structure for this 9 minute suite in four movements. The first three sections are instrumental, Moraz building the piece through a variety of synths. The third part "Serenade" is an Emerson like piano recital which leads into the closing section, "Back to nature". Here, McBurnie does a reasonable impression of Dusty Springfield(!), the album closing on a fairly downbeat note.

In all, a very disappointing album, especially since expectations had been raised by Moraz first solo outing. Only "Time for a change" holds any real interest.

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