COMING THROUGH

It's funny to see mr. Okumoto included on our site for I suggested him some 20 months ago and he was rejected because he wasn't prog at all. Never mind, I could easily say I told you by now but I'm a good sport, I can take it. Enough with the silliness, time for the review now. I have to be honest and have to admit I mainly suggested Ryo Okumoto because he's after all the keyboardist of Spocks Beard and I happened to own this solo release. To say this is pure prog isn't easy to tell really because it's a mixed bag of more than one style. Therefore I can relate to the fact the teams placed the man in the eclectic category.

First track is immediately one of the most progressive songs in my view. Godzilla is an all instrumental energetic fusion track with lots of interesting shifts, all in all a mix of rock and jazz. 3,75*

Next is The Farther he goes ... is more of a AOR kind of rock song, nice and heavy with vocals by his SB companion Nick D'Virgilio, who also does the drums of course. Nice guitar work as well by the famous Steve Lukather. So no downright prog in this case. 3,5* though

Slipping down is another accessible rocking tune with vocals by another famous Toto boy: mr. Bobby Kimball. The song is a bit less captivating than previous in my opinion. 3,25*

Talking about famous boys: Glenn Hughes is vocalist on Highway Roller so it's not really surprising this has some resemblance to the more commercial side of Deep Purple. 3*

Free fall is a lot calmer than previous three and returns to the fusion style of the opening track. This time Ryo is accompanied by his team mates of Spock's Beard. Nice stuff, 3,5*

Next up is the title track and this the ballad of the album. Vocals by Neal Morse who also does quite a lot of lyric writing on this album. 3,25*

Close enough is the track that is stuck in my mind from the period I used to play this album quite a few times. Along with opening Godzilla this is the most progressive of all tracks. Also the longest song so not really a big surprise it's pretty progressive. Probably the reason Ryo is included in the end. Good composition though not really mindblowing all the way through. 3,75*

The Imperial closes down this solo release and is more or less an average track compared to the other ones. Nice instrumental, 3,25-3,5*.

And this last score is about what the album is worth to me, somewhere between 3,25 and 3,5 stars but by no means a truly excellent album, more of a nice intermezzo in Okumoto's successful career in Spocks Beard. Recommended for fans of this band and maybe also for fans of Toto and Deep Purple. By the way, my version also contains a nice DVD about the making of ...