FEAR OF THE DARK

Gordon's third album in three years brings to a close the set that is often viewed as a trilogy, with the same key musicians and producers as on the previous two. The major difference here was with the songwriting, as although there are plenty of solo writes on this album, there are also some which are credited to Gordon and keyboard player Rod Edwards. Due to issues at home, Gordon decided that they needed to have somewhere to write so they rented a house in the country to do just that. Apparently this is a practice that he stills continues to this day, as he found it so relaxing to have a totally different atmosphere.

The original 8 songs have now been extended to 15, including some TV themes that were released as a single (The Waltons works really well), so there is now well over an hour of music with Gordon showing again that he is at home on electric as he is on acoustic. "Weary Eyes" is a delight with wonderful orchestration, great piano, a warm fretless bass, sympathetic drums and a choir. Who could ask for more? These three albums cemented Gordon's reputation as a performer of the highest order, yet he has still never really gained the acclaim that he should have. I don't believe that he has ever released a poor album (even his Christmas album is listenable) and these reissues by Esoteric with bonus songs makes this a great time to investigate his music.