Francis Dunnery is a special case. In addition to being a musician, he is also an astrologer. In his eventful career he has achieved great successes but also experienced great lows due to his alcohol and drug addictions. That's over now and he's more productive than ever. Last year he even toured England with his blues band. But Dunnery wanted to do some proggy stuff again and is now releasing an album under the name of his former band It Bites, with the addition FD. Because it's his It Bites. Is his new album Return To Natural a bad album? No, it's not. With musicians such as Paul Brown (bass guitar), Chad Wackerman (drums), Tony Turrell (Keyboards) and Dave McCracken (creating ambience) he has formed a band that is rock solid. Dunnery's guitar playing is fantastic as always. Francis Dunnery lives partly in the United States and you can hear that. This is an American album. It has soul, reggae (Man Overboard) and even The Eagles (Magdalena) appear. And then there are the jazz rock influences. In this new album you can also hear his love for blues music. Dunnery sounds much more American in his (fine) singing than before. I wish I could have written about a Francis Dunnery album rather than an It Bites album because of these American influences. To me, It Bites was a typically English band, especially with John Mitchell at the helm. I think it's a shame that Return To Natural was released under the name It Bites FD. That would not have been necessary, because Francis Dunnery himself is famous enough. Return To Natural is definitely a great album. As mentioned, good quality musicians and excellent singing and great guitar playing by Francis Dunnery make this album very listenable. But it is an American rock/jazz/prog album. No It Bites for me. *** Arne van Os van den Abeelen (edited by Tracy van os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
