GEOF WHITELY PROJECT

— First review of this album —

The "Geof Whitely Project" is a crossover prog band from the UK that was formed in 2011 by Geof Whitely who plays keyboards, drums, percussion and vocals for his albums. He has also recruited other musicians to help out. Since the forming of this project, Geof has released 14 full length studio albums, usually about 2 each year. His albums usually have quite a variety of styles and one of their goals is to make albums that have something for everyone on them,

The project's 14th studio album is called "Disambiguation". It is made up of 10 tracks and has a total run time of almost 65 minutes, with none of those tracks going under the 5 minute mark.

The album starts off with "Phantasm" which starts with spoken vocals from what could be a witch making menacing threats with nice layers of synths and other keys. After a while, guitar chords finally bring in the full band with a nice guitar passage. Singing starts just before the 3 minute mark. Geof's vocals are quite pleasant, somewhat reminiscent of Gilmour's. The music also has that Floydian feel with an extra brightness brought on by shimmering keys on the 2nd verse. The beat is moderately straightforward. There are also instances of nice harmonics provided by layered vocals. "Magnificence" starts atmospheric with spoken vocals from Stephen Hawking. This speech lasts over 2 minutes, then a moderately slow rhythm starts with guitars with singing vocals starting after 3 minutes. The lyrics are quite repetitive. This is a longer track approaching the 8 minute mark, but it doesn't develop into anything except for a slow and steady beat all the way through.

The music continues in this style, quite accessible, pleasant, with nice layers of synths and guitars, but the music stays safe, keeping away from complicated passages or progressive styles, remaining mostly simple with an underlying progressive inspiration, but without using the musical techniques and continuing with simplicity, much like the sounds and style of the Alan Parsons Project, but without instrumental pieces. "Light My Way" does start with a nice and peaceful introduction, using a reflective feel with an almost oriental style. But it soon goes into safe mode when the band kicks in, again with repetitive lyrics and a moderate, steady beat. Things do finally speed up a bit after 5 minutes with a tempo shift, but the meter remains quite standard, and the melody and repetitive lines continue. "If We Could Only See" has the vibe of a single, is a tad more upbeat, but continues with the safe formula.

So, to those that like the pop sound with very light progressiveness (mostly in attitude than in technique), then this one is for you. Those that like the easy listening style will enjoy this. The music stays quite safe and accessible all the way through, and starts to sound too much alike. Even the longer tracks don't develop much once a tempo and feeling is reached. The longer introductions are usually just to build up to typical meters and melodic passages. To me, it seems pretty average, and doesn't really have a lot of staying power, so 3 stars seems like a fair rating.