THE STEVE HOWE ALBUM

Steve's second solo album is a really nice record, presenting to the listener a palette of guitarist's styles in a honest and enjoyable way, focusing quite much to European classical music leanings. The music is mostly instrumental, which is a good thing as Steve is not as good in singing as he is with playing guitar. One tune "All's a Chord" give us an example of this, though the fragile song is not totally ruined by the honest vocal interpretations. There are also few quite jolly rags here, "Cactus Boogie" and "Meadow Rag" which are technically good of course, but perhaps too light-minded rants for my appreciation. Then the rest of the album is really great stuff; the opener "Pennants" is an interesting rock track with complex details, carrying forward the progressive legacy of Yes, which already had started the slow disintegration process concluding at the end of 1970's. "Look over Your Shoulder" is a calm piece for lady singer, and then the rest of songs are in constructed in European classic music style, ranging from solo guitar works to orchestrated pieces. I like classical music very much, so these songs pleased me certainly. The orchestrations are done in a very professional way, and the detailed arrangements are created as essential element of the composition, so these are not typical wallpaper fillers done with the strings. "Double Rondo" is the longest of these classical tunes, and it leads to an arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi's 2nd Movement of his Concerto for guitar and orchestra in D, melodically really beautiful number also used by Peter Sinfield on his "Song of The Seagoat". I would recommend this album of course for fans of Yes and the performer himself, but also anybody enjoying elegant and light classical music with art rock crossover blending. The gatefold vinyl covers with Roger Dean's design and photographs of Steve's guitar collection make this as a nice object for any vinyl collector too.