OP ZOP TOO WAH

I have to say that I really enjoy and respect Adrian Belew solo work. I was captivated by albums like Lone Rhino, Twang Bar King, Desire Caught By The Tail, Salad Days and of course his Sides trilogy. He is one of the most versatile musicians of these years, very eclectic and experimental and without a doubt, the guy who rises King Crimson since the 80's.

But if you want to introduce yourself into Belew's solo work don't try this one. Is a nice album but far away from his best releases. In first place is full of little nonsense pieces of +/- 1 minute that break the album harmony. Just "Live in a Tree" survives between these short songs with his great drum rhythm.

Second: as in all Belew discography you will find crimsonian sounds (specially guitars and percussions), some Zappa passages and a constant attempt to make some Beatles rhythmical and lyrical stuff. But even with this inffluences (very obvious BTW), the album sounds very uniform to me. Anyway I have to mention some of my favs:

All Her Love Is Mine: Slow and mysterious song, a little dark with nice arrangements for stick and strangely rhythmical.

I Remember How to Forget: A classic rhythmical Belew song that sounds like the 80's Crimson but with some touches of what he gonna do with the 90's KC. IN fact the end of that songs reminds me "Dinosaur"...

Op Zop Too Wah: The best song of the album. A very catchy instrumental full of great guitar riffs and solo, with a powerful percussion background in the classic style of Adrian.

Beautiful: Nice balad leaded by Belew vocals and guitar and some string arrangements.

High Wire Guitar: The most crimsonian song of the album! Distorted guitar, syncopated percussions... It looks like a leftover of "Thrak"!

The Ruin After the Rain: Very sad balad leaded by a piano with interesting lyrics and a great work on vocals.

On: THe last track of the album, perfcet for this finale. Nice arrangements an great rhythmical sections.

Good album but not of my favs... Anyway, Belew plays all the instruments on this album (as usual in most of his discography) and his talent and particular vision of music is totally respectable. That fact always gives to their releases at least one star as a base in any review of his albums...

3.5*