Erik Scott is an American multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. Scott played bass in the band Flo & Eddie in the 1970s as well as Alice Cooper in the 1980s, for whom he also produced. In 2008 he became a solo artist in his own right, with his debut album Other Planets. His second solo album And The Earth Bleeds was released in 2014. Scott's music isn't too hard to describe. It's a kind of film-score in a typical English landscape setting. Erik played basses, guitars, keyboard and synthesizer, electric piano, drums and does the percussion programming. He even wrote the songs and all lyrics. In several songs he asked his friends for help. Shira Kammen playied the medieval violin on three songs, Ana Maria Botero, sang two songs, Michael Scott, did the vocals on Free. Philip Miller played the guitar, John Mader the drums, Steve Eisen English Whistle, Mari Mack sang the vocals, Chris Cameron played organ, John Pirbuccello played steel guitar and mandolin, Hank Guaglianone hit additional snares on Battle, Fred Payne played bagpipes and lastly the Eskimo Dobbs Choir also featured. First song Gypsy Mother And The Royal Bastard has several violin solos in an old ancient Eastern setting. Romantic, waltz and Iona are the keywords in the second song Free. Erik's bass playing is of extraordinary quality in this composition. Hypnotic, dance rhythms and the whiny voice of Erik are audible in the title track. Another interesting song is Weightless; the steel guitar and the bass are fighting kind of a duel around angelic voices. It would beautiful as a film score. I expect a lot of listeners will have some problems with the next song, Loco Amour, mainly because of the almost spoken words by Erik. He sounds like the country music hero Willie Nelson. The Clapton-guitar and copying of Linda Ronstadt's singing save this song somewhat. The country and western feel returns in The Battle For Neverland: violins, bagpipes and the pumping bass with a 4/4 beat sound like a rollercoaster on speed from Scotland. Unfortunately the next song is the weakest one. Let's Do Something Cool isn't cool at all. It's a bad pastiche of the music by Mr. Bryan Ferry. The (mainly spoken) vocals and music on Run are much better; Daniel Lanois meets Robbie Robertson (The Band) in a southern American small town. More bombastic orchestral sounds can be found in the last instrumental song The White Mouse, but, it's a little bit too short to impress me. Erik Scott knows how to write decent songs. It's a pity his vocal performances leave much to be desired compared to its musical craftsmanship. *** Cor Smeets (edited by Esther Ladiges) Where to buy? |
