CAN'T LOOK AWAY

Without doubt, TREVOR RABIN is a very talented musician. He not only is a very good guitarist, but also he is a good keyboard player, lead singer , composer and producer. All these things appear in all the albums that he recorded as a member of YES between 1983 and 1994. Many fans of the band did not like very much his influence in the band`s music because it changed from being Prog Rock to a new style of music which also included some Pop Rock music influences and Hit Singles which were played a lot in the Radio. Despite all these influences, I still think that he was talented enough to be a member of that band. In the albums that he recorded with the band there are some good quality songs and some very good lead guitar playing by him.

This album, his fourth as soloist, was released almost at the same time as the "Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe" album, an album which Jon Anderson recorded with those other then former members of the band, being tired of the music direction that YES was having then. YES lost Anderson since late 1988, so the band was on hiatus, without a lead singer. So, Rabin took the opportunity to record this new solo album titled "I Can`t Look Away", maybe looking for a new chance as a soloist in 1989.

This is a good album, with songs mostly composed and arranged in the Pop Rock music trends of the late eighties, with some of them still having some Progressive rock influences. Unfortunately, the album is not very consistent as a whole and some songs really are not very interesting.

Among the best songs in this album, they are "I Can`t Look Away", "Something to Hold On To" (which became a Hit Single and maybe it is th best song from this album), "Sorrow (your heart)" (very influenced by Souht African music), "Cover Up", and "Promises" Coincidentaly, all these songs are the first five songs in the album, and with "Sludge", all are the strongest from the album. With the exception of "Promises", all these songs were also included in his live album titled "Live in L.A." which was released until 2003. That album has all these songs played better in concert.

Unfortunately, the rest of the songs are not as good, being mostly very Pop Rock ballads (like "I Didn`t Think It Would Last", "Hold On to Me", and "I Miss You Now"), plus a "power ballad" which sounds like being very influenced by FOREIGNER ("Eyes of Love") with a guitar riff very influenced by that band`s guitarist (Mick Jones). "Etoile Noir" and "The Cape" are instrumental pieces of music, not very interesting for my taste.

So, Rabin left at the first half of the album the best songs, with the rest of the songs (with the exception of the heavy instrumental titled "Sludge") not being as interesting. The album only reached the number 111 in the "Billboard 200" chart in the U.S., so it was not very successful in commercial terms, even with the very eighties production. But "Something to Hold On To" became a Hit Single, reaching the number three in the U.S. Billboard charts, and having a video which was played on TV.

The recording and mixing of the album is very good. Rabin recorded very good lead and backing vocals, and his guitar playing is very good, having some very good guitar solos in some songs. So, this is a good quality album which could have been more interesting for some of Rabin`s fans and some fans of the Pop Rock market.

YES`s drummer Alan White appears in two songs, but in this album his drums playing style is not very easy to be identified, having to compete with some programmed drum machines.

This album was the last released Rabin`s solo album until 2012, when he released his album titled "Jacaranda", after recording a lot of soundtrack albums for films since leaving YES in mid 1995.