THE ROAD HOME

Being a fan of Jordan Rudess' work with Dream Theater I wanted to hear how he would sound on his own and The Road Home felt like a plausible gateway to his work. The videos on YouTube where Jordan Rudess talks about the album definitely played an important part in that decision.

Well it's obvious that Jordan is a creative artist but somehow his work here rarely touches me in a way the original recordings of these compositions have done over the years. The only nice surprise here was the cover of Gentle Giant's Just The Same that, in my opinion, came close to sounding almost as good as the original.

The list of guest appearances is quite impressive but most of them result in somewhat uninspired performances that drag the album down for me. I'm also not that keen on the new sections (so called "original bits") that Rudess added to the compositions. It was definitely an interesting idea on paper but the results are far from impressive.

Still it's hard to hate the album for not trying so cheers to Jordan Rudess in hope of that his future recordings will be more appreciated by me.

**** star songs: Just The Same (8:22) Piece Of The Pi (3:05)

*** star songs: Dance On A Volcano (8:44) Sound Chaser (12:54) JR Piano Medley (8:22) Tarkus (22:47)