PETER PANKA'S JANE: VOICES

IMO Jane never sounded as Jane any longer while they split in two parts like BJH.

From the offerings, "Peter's Panka Jane" is the only one to have recorded studio albums. And I miss very much Klaus Hess and his fantastic guitar work but "Voices" won't be as bad as some of their previous albums ("Beautiful Lady" and "Resurrection" being by far their worst ones).

"Jane" is playing a solid, heavy rock but with little inspiration. Song writing is definitely not at its best for this work. One of the worst is "Carry On"; and even a very good but short guitar solo couldn't save it from misery. The absolutely nadir is "Gentlewoman". Some sort of soul inspired (???) song. Difficult to bear, really. Same is valid for the very poor vocals during "Always On The Run". That's the best thing to do while listening to this song is to press next to avoid listening to "Jane" intending to play some world music song...

One of the very few songs that stands out is "The Last Time" (premonitory?). Pleasant keyboards and great guitar break are a very good trip back in time. On the mellow and emotional side, "Voice In The Wind" might work OK. It holds some of their typical vocals but sustained with repetitive drumming and a nice melody.

When you listen to "Dawn", it seems that you transported to the very early "Jane". The Floyd oriented one. It is by far my favourite track from this album. It is as well the longest one. I am sure that this song would please ANY old fans from "Jane". If only more songs from this calibre could have highlighted this album! It's probably nostalgia, but this song is on par with several of their best numbers written a looooooong ago. A sublime and very short closing number just leaves you just unsatisfied.

It is a pity that both Peter Panka and Klaus Hess couldn't leave their ego aside. Together (with the help of a few others of course) they have produced some very good albums (up to "Jane" in 1980). There won't be any of these any more since Peter sadly passed away earlier on this year. RIP Peter and thanks for these great musical moments. Could Klaus take up the torch ? I just hope so because this album is just short to be rated as a good album. Two stars.