I.O.U.

I always have to be in the right mood to listen to an Allan Holdsworth album. While his playing is always incredible, his compositions often sound to me like he uses some sort of random chord generator, then writes a melody around those chords. That he can solo over such pieces is a testament to his greatness.

Here, the group is simple, just Holdsworth's guitar, Paul Carmichael on bass and Gary Husband on drums, with Paul Williams on vocals on a few tracks. The songs are all complex, as described above, and the performance by the entire band is first rate. This is a good place to start your Holdsworth collection.