THE SHAMING OF THE TRUE

The Shaming of the True is Kevin Gilbert´s third album. It´s a very american sounding album with a very american concept story about a rock star and his struggle on the way to fame and of course his demise. Does this sound familiar ? Well that´s because about one thousand other bands have written about this before. Remember Tom Petty´s Into the Great Wide Open ? Well this album´s story isn´t far from that one.

The music is in the same vein as some of the more commercial and easy listening Spock´s Beard and Echolyn. There are some great songs here like the Gentle Giant ( or Spock´s Beard if that suits you better) inspired Suit Fugue (Dance of the A&R Men). It´s uses the multilayered and polyrythmic vocals that Gentle Giant did in the seventies. It´s really well done here. There are also some almost heavy rock riffing in some of the songs. Certifiable #1 Smash has a chorus that sounds almost like eclectic heavy metal band Extreme. The lyrics are generally well written, but the story is too abused and it seems a bit trivial to me. The music is generally vers chorus structured so don´t expect some wild instrumental excursions or exciting middle sections on The Shaming of the True.

The musicianship is good, nothing to complain about there. Kevin Gilbert plays just about everything, but is helped out by Spock´s Beard drummer Nick D'Virgilio and a few other people. Kevin Gilbert is a skilled singer and I´m sure if you like his very american approach you´ll enjoy his style.

The productions is good.

The Shaming Of The True is a good album from Kevin Gilbert even though I must say I have a hard time with his very american style. Listen to Parade which is almost in american singer/ songwriter style for instance. I´ll give this album 3 stars even though it´s not really my taste, but as I always say: You can´t deny quality.