THE STORY OF I

After hearing Yes' Relayer with Patrick Moraz on keyboards I felt obliged to listen his first studio album, which I found was in my lp collection. What I got was an obscure, heavily Brazilian influenced album, full of changes and madness. It's full of Brazilian percussion (just see the musicians list), but it's crossed with crazy, psycadelic, trippy, jazzy, even spacey, synth. It also has piano, singing here and there, and the usual rock instruments: drums, bass, and some guitars. All the music flows and the album is best listened to as a whole.

Impact - This isn't really a song but more of an introduction to the strange tone of this album, although none of it is as 'out there' as this. It's filed with weird sounds and it's kind of creepy. Good though.

Warmer Hands - This is a mix between a proper lyrical song, and a crazy fest of music similar to a lot of other songs. Very enjoyable.

The Storm - Basically a mess of sound and music to create the impression of a storm.

Cachaca - Very weird. It's a happy and corny song that feels like a bunch of children in the jungle having a good time. It's obscure so I welcome it as part of the album.

Intermezzo - This features classical sounding piano and a short female vocal section, sung in French and English at the same time. It's an interesting effect and I would have liked to hear more of it. The song then gets a bit more rockier at the end. Very good stuff. A definite highlight.

Indoors - The first half is a psychedelic solo battle between a synth lead and an electric guitar. Then it turns into what sounds like music suited to Mario Kart, with some lyrics. This is my personal favourite song on the album.

Best Years Of Our Lives - This is probably the closest thing to normality on this album. It's a ballad with subtle touches of Moraz's synth sound. It's a great, emotional song and a good closer to the first half.

Descent - After the tranquil and pleasant song before, this song hits you immediately with a fast-paced and exciting music.

Incantation - A short progression of mysterious and rhythmic music with some tribal sounds thrown in. Works well.

Dancing Now - What's this? Moraz seems to have made a lyrical, pop-like, catchy song. He has ventured away from his interesting and obscure treats. It's not too bad though and still contains a little of the album's unique style.

Impressions - Simply a piano piece with dreamy wave sounds in the background. Not bad.

Like A Child In Disguise - Oh no, another lyrical pop song. And it's even worse than the last one. The problem with these is they don't feel adventurous at all and leave me bored and uninterested.

Rise and Fall - To redeem the album at this point it has gone back to synthy madness with this complex and out-there song. And it's fairly long for this album.

Symphony In The Space - This is an orchestral piece, only the orchestra is all synth. As the name would suggest it's a symphonic, almost spacey sounding song. Good close.

Overall The Story of I is a good album. It's very adventurous and unique with it's fusion of worldly music and prog. Being that it's full of short pieces and it's always changing, the album demands attention when listening to it. I found this album a little hard to feel a connection with, and some parts were a little too experimental and crazy, with no strong melodies that stuck after a listen. But the worst parts were the two emotionless pop songs. They're the faults but there's more good than bad here. I would recommend checking out this album. 3.5 stars.