SILENT NIGHTS

Silent Nights is no where near the global mastery of the 6 Wives, his addition of vocals has never been a unanimous consensus as Gordon Neville is more suited for AOR or FM rock and his voice almost grates on occasion. This album is a tale of two extremes with some great tunes as well as some average stuff. It's certainly not his best or worst. Oh well! Highlights include amusing "The Opening Line", the interesting and bass fueled gentility of "Silent Nights" and the somewhat overtly commercial but sarcastic "Ghost of a Rock 'n Roll Star" (both almost in Alan Parsons territory) and the absolute majestic "Elgin Mansions" which remains one of his finest piano compositions ever. Then we have an instrumental about "Man's Best Friend", a whistling synth étude that is completely enjoyable. The average stuff: "Glory Boys" is very commercial, almost prog veneered pop (check out the cheesy backing vocals), "Tell "Em All." is pretty much the same, soulless music. "The Opera" leaves me indifferent. The Dancer is just plain bad. In all, this is worth getting but certainly nothing vital. Nice cover artwork though. 3.5 golden capes