Billy Sherwood, multi-instrumentalist and current bass player with prog rock legends Yes, is best known for his work with Circa:, World Trade and Yes. Divided By One is Sherwood's seventh solo album and it is again a typical Sherwood album featuring 10 new songs with those very recognisable prog rock sounds. The opener On Impact is one of the highlights of the album as it could also have been played and recorded by Yes; the song features an excellent guitar solo in the middle and a nice slide guitar solo at the end. Between Us has a beautiful melody and the guitar solo is really breath taking. The third excellent track on this album is called Here For You, a ballad-like song with amazing slide guitar passages and some nice guitar solos as well. The other 7 tracks however are not of that high quality as they tend to become tiresome as these tracks all sound a-like and it seems like I have heard these kind of tracks too often from Sherwood. Of course the music on this album is not bad, but I really expected something else from Sherwood as most songs have too many Yes influences and characteristics and his vocals could also be a bit more variable and/or experimental. Having said all this, you may think that it is not worthwhile checking out this album, but for die-hard Yes fans it still is a great album. As you know, or not, I am a die-hard Yes fan, but I am not that charmed by Yes-like music without the guitar of Steve Howe and the vocals of Jon Anderson. Anyway, there are many worse albums you could listen to, so give it a try. *** Martien Koolen (edited by Robert James Pashman) Where to buy? |
