DUNCAN BROWNE

Even if I was not convinced about his belonging to PA I'm quite happy to have the opportunity to review the few albums that I have of this artist that's effectively borderline with prog. I have enjoyed a lot the Metro debut and its follow-up and the first thing that I notice on this is that the opener "Ragged Rain Line" has a lot of Metro, in particular the classical guitar is clearly the same of "Ouverture to Flame" that's IMO the best thing of the Metro debut.

"Country Song" is more or less what the title says: a song of the countryside mainly made of classical guitar and voice has a feeling close to Simon and Garfunkel that's not absolutely bad, but quite few prog. However is a very nice song.

"The Martlet" is more oriented to the British folk, still guitar and voice with other instruments coming and going just to fill here and there. The most similar prog artist is probably Anthony Phillips, but thinking to the mainstream this song makes me think to "Kings of Convenience".

On "My Only Son" the nice thing is the guitar that sounds like a piano. Duncan's voice is warm and middle-pitched. Again his guitar playing reminds to Ant Phillips but the song has an American country influence. As I have written in a post I see many similarities with a country-folk singer named Dan Fogelberg. The reason why I consider Browne "borderline" is this fusion of American and English folk influences.

"Babe Rainbow" is the first true progressive song of the album. It has an interesting melody. Before the blues chorus the melody is obsessive and repetitive. Far from being "experimental" is a good attempt to make something different. Also the arrangements include different sounds respect to the guitar/voice thing.

"Journey" is a folky tune clearly reminding of Bob Dylan also in the singing style even though Duncan Brown has a better voice IMO.

"Cast No Shadow" features piano instead of guitar but it's not very different from the other slow melodic songs listened up to now. I hear Simon and Garfunkel, specially when Duncan sings in 'falsetto' like Art Garfunkel sometimes does.

"Over The Reef" is another song with a country mood, but I hear also an influence from the British pop of the 70s in the chords sequence.

"My Old Friends" makes me think to the acoustic Rod Stewart of "Footloose and Fancy Free", but this is more acoustic as the only instrument is again the guitar.

"Last Time Around" is a kind of folk song reminding to Jethro Tull. A mixture of dark blues and English folk. The most appealing song for proggers.

"In A Mist" is opened by a finger picking guitar. Anthony Phillips but also Paul Simon again as possible references. This is a quite long acoustic ballad.

"Send Me The Bill For Your Friendship" sees the first electric guitar. It's a song that has a good "Caravan" flavor. Browne sings high-pithced like Pye Hastings and I think that this song could stay on the A side of In The Land Of Grey And Pink (it's surely better than "Love To Love You").

"Guitar Piece" is what the title says. A good performace also from a technical point of view. Nobody can say that Browne wasn't an excellent classical guitar player.

The closer is another very nice short song. The guitar has a lot of reverb and this adds an ethereal touch.

If you are a guitarist this album is surely interesting. Also for who like me has discovered this artist from Metro this is interesting as there's a lot of this guitar in "Criminal World".

A good but non-essential album from an excellent classical skilled guitarist with a warm voice.