EUPHORIA

Released by the Magna Carta label in 1995, Euphoria is World Trade's second album and their latest to date. The band consisted of Guy Allison on keyboards, Bruce Gowdy on guitars, Jay Schellen on drums, and Billy Sherwood on lead vocals and bass. Euphoria is a modern progressive Rock album and it appeared at a time when Prog was experiencing a revival after the (more or less) barren 80's. This second album of the group is a significant improvement over the debut and an enjoyable album in its own right.

Sherwood does most of the lead vocals but a few passages seem to be sung by someone else (but I don't know whom). The songs on which Billy's vocals are most recognizable point in the direction of his future solo career, but World Trade's music is not quite up to the same standards as most of his excellent solo albums. With the exception of the closing number One By One By One/Wheels Of Life the best songs of Euphoria appear near the beginning of the album. The first three tracks as well as In The Wake Of The Storm are among the best.

The amazing Chris Squire appears as a guest on a couple of tracks here contributing some backing vocals and some bass. This was before Sherwood was asked to join Yes as a full member, but Billy and Chris had been personal friends for several years and Billy had already co-written a couple of songs for Yes in the early 90's as well as toured with them in support of the Talk album as an extra guitarist. The tracks on which Squire guests here foreshadow the Conspiracy project and reminds of the music that this duo (consisting of Sherwood and Squire) would record in the early 2000's. Say Goodbye is, for example, similar in style to Love Conquers All, a Sherwood/Squire composition that first appeared on the box set Yesyears and was later re-recorded for the first Conspiracy album.

Other than their two studio albums, World Trade has to date only recorded some tracks for tribute albums that were also released by Magna Carta Records. These include a version of Wondrous Stories on the Yes tribute album Tales From Yesterday, Keep It Dark on the Genesis tribute album Supper's Ready, and Any Colour You Like on The Moon Revisited, a tribute to Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. I'm saying this here as this tells something about the band's influences. These covers were all released in the same year as Euphoria and since then it has been quiet from World Trade. But at this time of writing (2015), 20 years after the release of Euphoria, Sherwood has recently announced that World Trade are currently working on their third studio album, which he said will sound like 80's Yes! I am looking forward to that!

In the meantime we will have to make due with Euphoria which is definitely a good album even if it not every song from it makes me euphoric.

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