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His career has spanned four decades. In
addition to being the long-time frontman for Deep Purple, he
has performed in "Jesus Christ Superstar," done an
album with "Black Sabbath," and released numerous solo
and side projects. Now, "Ian Gillan" is back with another
solo album, "Dreamcatcher." It's possible that this
album could have become just a footnote to a storied career,
but Ian has reached into his bag of songwriting tricks and conjured
up an album that's remarkably fun to listen to.
The main reason that this album succeeds,
is that he doesn't resort to formulaic re-hashings of past successes.
Instead of putting out a "Perfect Stranger Part II,"
he plays with a wide variety of musical styles to create an album
that's both varied and genuinely fun to listen to.
The album opens with "Hard On You,"
a track that has Deep Purplesque lyrics and guitar work, but
also includes an interesting, almost world-beat percussion section.
He delves into blues on both "You Sold My Love For A Song,"
and also the cosmically conscious "That's Why God is Singing
the Blues." The latter song would be a folk singer's wet
dream, combining a catchy tune, clever lyrics, and sparse instrumentation:
acoustic guitar and snapping fingers.
Both "Sugar Plum" and "A
Day Late And A Dollar Short" would fit comfortably into
the grandiose songwriting that peppered the best of the Deep
Purple albums, with "Sugar Plum" featuring sweeping
keyboard work, and "A Day Late And A Dollar Short"
adding a string section intro. The latter expands into "Chandra's
Coriander," which actually, tropical percussion aside, sounds
like it could take it's place somewhere in an Andrew Lloyd Weber
musical.
Keyboards are once again the focal point
in the soft-spoken, laid-back "All In My Mind." This
provides a good segue into one of the most entertaining songs
on the album, "Prima Donna." "Prima Donna"
may be the closest thing to a perfectly written pop song on the
album, with a melody that snakes it's way into your head from
the outset and lyrics that beg to be sung along to (that is,
until they hear me sing.)
There are a couple of pretty good ballads
that keep things flowing, but nothing quite prepares the listener
for the centerpiece of the album (at least in my mind), "Gunga
Din." This brilliant ditty has the pace and instrumentation
of an Irish folk song. The volume knob goes about all the way
up every time the album reaches this song, and as it plays, much
to the chagrin of my neighbors, I attempt what could best be
described as a Southern white boy Irish jig. The story of the
song title, which is dedicated to his father, is told in the
liner notes, and this song itself is worth the price of the album,
in my opinion.
The album closes with a lazy 60's sounding
rock love song, with almost a doo-wop quality to the vocals.
Despite the fact that I've been a fan of Deep Purple for a long
time, and despite the fact that I've always admired Gillan's
singing, this album was a very pleasant surprise to me. It has
a "never the same thing twice" feel to the music, and
more importantly, has quality songwriting througout. He doesn't
follow formulas as much as he develops his own, and hopefully
this album will provide a nice prelude for what is yet to come
from him.
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