HERE

At this point in his career, Adrian Belew was working pretty much exclusively on his solo career, with King Crimson being defunct for nearly 10 years and having no major collaborations in the distant future or past (besides essentially running one of David Bowie's early 90s tours). Here continues the trend that began with Young Lions and continued with Inner Revolution. It has Belew experimenting a bit more with different than on the previous few albums, but it still has that strong sense in melody and songwriting rather than raw instrumentation.

Belew's influence from the Beatles is rather evident on this album, with songs that experiment in the vein of Love You To from Revolver in terms of the almost Indian sounds. The song that I speak of in particular is Fly, with its ethereal soundscapes and the twangy acoustic guitar coupled with Belew's multi-harmonied Beatles-esque vocal approach.

Still, Belew's quirky style is at the foray, with his sharp and lightly distorted guitar sound magnificent when juxtaposed against his squealing leads that add a bit of that classic King Crimson flare that made up most of Belew's playing on that trilogy of albums. His solos on Never Enough and I See You are superlative to his easily identifiable style.

One of my favorite pieces on this album is the strictly acoustic piece Dreamlife, which reminds me of a Pete Townshend number in terms of the fingerpicked guitar styles and the emotive vocals. The lyrical material even has a bit of a Pete Townshend feel to it (although not directly, I get a hint of it along with John Lennon and Paul McCartney).

In all, I'm finding that I like Here the most of his early 90s albums. His next album, The Guitar as Orchestra: Experimental Guitar Series, Vol.1, would explore more Avant-Garde stylings and be a totally different experience than this album, which would be consequently the final by-the-numbers pop album by Belew. Not very progressive, but the strong songwriting and quirky instrumentation alone merit it a 3 star review. Hope you enjoy.