BEAUTY GONE WILD

An all-instrumental album based on Leah Waybright's love of nature, particularly flowers. In fact, every song is based around a flower. Waybright's keyboard and orchestration is very pleasant and laid-backed. On occasion, it will open up beyond the peuedo-folkiness i.e. 'African Violet' has a world sound and 'Clown Orchid' is very carnival/humorous. The last track has the fastest pace and is my favorite. When you look at the line-up for this album you'll see many muscians that played/play in the US symph/Canterbury band HAPPY THE MAN. Most of the songs have the sound of HAPPY THE MAN, but in their more lush and quiet mode. Not until you get to the last song, 'Forget-Me-Not' do you hear them stretch out and rock, especially the fantastic drummer Ron Riddle who played on my favorite HTM album, 'Crafty Hands'. For the most part, it's a subduded experience that also reminds me of the art rock band SKY. It's very pretty, played well and is a nice piece of music totally. Yet, I can't give it more than 3 stars because of it's even-keel tone throughout most of the album. It weaves and flows like flowers in a breeze, but it's reminds me to much of just lounging about and falling asleep, not opening my eyes to beauty like a garden should.