ACTING VERY STRANGE

Rutherford's second, and to date last solo album, was something of a disappointment. After his highly credible first album "Smallcreep's day", expectations were high that Rutherford would some up with something more akin to the earlier prog of his parent band, and thus demonstrate clearly that he was not responsible for Genesis pursuit of the King's shilling. This was especially the case in light of the way the music of Genesis was heading (this album was released between "ABACAB" in 1981, and "Genesis" 1983),

The first and probably most significant mistake that Rutherford made with this album, was to sing the lead vocals himself. This was something he would not do again, even with Mike and the Mechanics. Indeed, Rutherford since has since indicated that he does not have any ambitions to sing lead again, clearly he is all too aware of his shortcomings in that department. What makes his decision to do the singing here even more ill advised is that this is a very vocal album.

The opening (title) track is indicative of the content of the album as whole. A mediocre mid-paced pop rock song is given a cod-punk feel through the pseudo-cockney accent. Indeed, while the performances are perfunctory, and Rutherford's singing prosaic at best, it is the uniformly poor nature of the song-writing which is the real Achilles heel of this collection. Lyrics such as "There's nothing you can do, I'm still in love with you" from the most awful song on the album ("Halfway there") are decidedly unworthy of a talent such as Rutherford. Every song sounds the same too, there no variety, just the bouncy pop rock songs which thousands of bands churn out every day.

Only the final track, "Hideway" offers any sort of change at all, being a reflective ballad. To call it the best track on the album implies it has anything to compete with, which it does not. The song has a passing similarity with the vastly superior song of the same name by Creedence Clearwater Revival from their "Pendulum" album.

Even the presence of Genesis (live) guitarist Daryl Stuermer and Police drummer Stewart Copeland can't save this turkey. One star is over generous.

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