CRAFTY HANDS

Yeah, I don't get it. These guys get far more hype than they deserve in my opinion. This is another Arista seventies slicked-up 'artsy' offering like so much that was coming from that label around the time of this release: Alan Parsons, Barry Manilow, Eric Carmen, Al Stewart, Mike Masser - bleah! Pretty much all of what came from Arista around then was watered and neutered work from musicians that should have known better. There were a few exceptions; for one, I don't think Iggy Pop or Patti Smith had been chased away yet, but that's about it.

The only song on this album I remember from back then is "Morning Sun", which did get some FM radio airtime in between Hall & Oates retrospectives in Saturday mornings. And I'd guess most people thought it was Mike Oldfield, not Happy the Man doing the playing.

The rest is a lot of grandstanding by some pretty darn good musicians, but the tracks lack any real soul or substance. Yes, Wyatt and Watkins can both play pretty much any instrument in a music store, but if I want to listen to that I'll go sit in a music store and listen to people try out instruments. It's no surprise to me that Arista canned these guys before 1980 rolled around. There was some pretty decent instrumental techno/virtuoso music in the late seventies and early eighties coming out of America. Group 87 comes to mind, or Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic or maybe even Art of Noise (oops, I guess they weren't American. Too bad.). In any case these guys didn't produce anything new or more interesting than any of those bands. In some ways it's worse because they are clearly great musicians, but they don't demonstrate any kind of passion in their music - it's all posturing.

The opening "Service With a Smile" is as close as the album comes to a real lively, animated and engaging tune. The twin harpsichords especially are very good, and hey - who doesn't love a good harpsichord riff? The aforementioned "Morning Sun" is almost as good but pretty subdued, and after that things start to go down hill quickly.

"Ibby it Is" isn't. The concept is solid enough, but the progressions are slow, the playing seems perfunctory, and this thing ends up dragging on far too long, clocking in at nearly eight minutes. "Steaming Pipes" could have been called steaming pile, as far as I'm concerned. Decent horns, but I think this is the weakest track, with no spark whatsoever.

"Wind Up Doll Day Wind" has a very good guitar solo midway through, and the keyboards are more up-front and controlling than on most of the rest of the album, but the vocals make this end up sounding like a Saga tune to me. Unfortunately, I don't like Saga much.

The languid "Open Book" is well-played, but also very boring. Virginia Astley did a thing called "Melt the Snow" around the same time, and that's what this sounds like. Only her records get filed under the New-Age section at Borders.

I'm not quite sure what "I Forgot to Push It" is all about, but for a few moments it gives hints of being interesting with some edgy keyboard and saxophone work, but after three minutes the song comes to an end without really doing anything much to develop the opening sequence.

Finally "The Moon, I Sing (Nossuri)", which like "Ibby it Is" drags on far too long and fails to engage the listener. Sorry, I just don't get it.

The skill of the individual musicians here is excellent. The music is probably appealing to people who like to listen to their music in a sterile environment and expect their music to somehow set their 'mood' for the day. But I doubt this would appeal to most symphonic or post-rock (and definitely not many metal) fans. Me, I like music that tears off a chunk of life and lets you know the guys playing it are living what they're playing. With these guys, I'm not convinced. Two stars.

peace