MANOEUVRES

Moore of the same

Greg's second solo album is very much a continuation of his eponymous debut. The band line up is unchanged, with Gary Moore continuing to pull the music in a firmly rock orientated direction. Once again, this is very much a band album, with Lake providing his distinctive vocals. At this time, his voice had not broken.

Tracks such as "Manoeuvres" (thank goodness for spell checkers!) and "I don't wanna lose your love tonight" are powerful driving songs, the latter having strong hints of Blackmore's RAINBOW. Side one features all the upbeat rock numbers on the album, this being emphasised by the fact that Gary Moore's song writing contributions can all be found on that side.

The second side is dominated by a succession of softer tracks. "It's you, you've gotta believe" is a power ballad with a strong melody and some excellent instrumentation. "Famous last words" is a soft reflective ballad which will appeal to those seeking Greg's ELP solo spots. Likewise, "Slave to love" is an appealing acoustic pop ballad, with AOR overtones. Gary Moore adds some tasteful "Empty rooms" like guitar to the song.

"Haunted" has a late night feel, the smoochy wind instrumental break complementing a fine vocal performance by Greg. The album closes with an orchestrated ballad "I don't know why I still love you" another atmospheric piece.

In all, I found this album to be just a little too like Greg's first one. There's no real progression or development here. The songs are of a consistently high quality, and the performances exemplary. Bearing in mind that this is essentially an AOR album from the Asia, GTR etc. school, there is plenty to enjoy.

Pity about the sleeve again though.

Very much the 'female friendly' soft rock option.For a bloke there isn't much here to raise the pulse as Greg makes use of his excellent baritone and tones down the rock angle.Quite nice and melodic but unfortunately somewhat boring for my taste.The debut album was much more interesting.Clearly GL felt there there was a niche for the sort of thing .Sadly though the post punk /electro dominated pop scene of the time (1983) thought otherwise while 'new' rock fans were getting into U2 and Simple Minds.Not great even its time and sadly no better on listening to it now.

Overall, this album does not impress me at all even though Gary Moore contributes guitar part. It's probably there is basically no prog elements at all and I don't think his previous album as well. The only reason putting his music here is his contribution in Emerson Lake and Palmer. Not only the music that is too light and not that good melody-wise and composition-wise but also the lyrics are not compelling at all - consider "A Woman Like You" which I can not imagine Greg Lake wrote a lyric like this!

All songs are just mere pop with some of them having rock elements. "Too Young To Love" is probably the only track that I can consider good as a rock track as I can see stunning guitar work by Gary Moore. For those wanting to know this album - it's OK if your reason is to complete everything about ELP. But if you want to have progressive music, forget it - nothing here. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW