MY SISTER

Marco Minnemann has become quite a busy musician in the last decade or so, having played in Steven Wilson's band, the excellent band The Aristocrats, teamed with Chad Wackerman and Terry Bozzio for a drumming tour, played in various bands including the death metal bands Necrophagist and Kreator, and worked with various famous musicians including Alex Lifeson, Eddie Jobson, Joe Satriani, Trey Gunn and so on. Not only is he an amazing drummer, but he is also a multi-talented instrumentalist who has been releasing several solo albums since 1998.

His latest album "My Sister", was released in August of 2019 and features quite an impressive line-up of guest musicians. The album is a double album with a total of 21 tracks, all written by Minnemann with two of them co-written by Alex Lifeson. Marco plays most of the instruments on this album, however, the guest line-up is too lengthy and complicated to explain here. However, the list of musicians and the tracks they perform on are listed on the album page here in the archives, so I would suggest visiting that page. The entire album has a run-time of over 106 minutes, and you definitely get your money's worth in music here.

The music on this album is quite varied, and the styles also vary from jazzy to neo-prog to heavy prog, hence the reason why it all accumulates under Eclectic Prog. With Minnemann's background, though, this is kind of to be expected. However, the entire album is not as "all over the place" as you might think. The music somehow all coalesces into a cohesive group of songs that sound like they belong together. There are defintaely highlights here, such as "White Sheets", being one of the most progressive tracks which also features some great violin work. "In the Moonlight" is a softer track that still has some tricky rhythms and wonderful drum work from Minnemann, but also contains some of the most beautiful vocals (by Maiah Wynne) and guitar work (from Marco himself) that make this one stand out. "Drum for Your Life" is an exciting and complex instrumental that show off Minnemann's musicianship quite well, especially in the piano riff and complex drumming, but its not just a simple drum solo at all as it utilizes a lot of tonal percussive instruments. Even the strange and quirky "Quantize Me" and "Angels Crossing the Line" have some eclectic appeal to them, complex and thick vocals make them unique and interesting. Both of these tracks are contrasted by the lovely and smoothly flowing "Ferry" that ties that trilogy of tracks together nicely.

There are some tracks on here that you expect to be standouts, right from the beginning. "My Sister" is the title track and is the longest at over 10 minutes. The complex vocal lines and the eclectic rhythms and musicianship here is one of the excellent standouts. The music is well composed and performed, and yes it boasts some complex passages along the way, especially in the extended instrumental sections. About halfway through, the music becomes experimental and quirky, but it resolves itself eventually into a smoother flowing section with some excellent guitar soloing (my guess is that this is the section performed by Alex Lifeson). You also expect "Lover's Calling" to be a standout since this is the track that is co-written by Lifeson and features his guitar, plus the fact that it is repeated in an instrumental version as a bonus track (so it better be good right?). Well, it is, and it definitely stands out, but not only for the reasons you would think. Guests Mohini Dey (bass) and Maiah Wynne (vocals) turn this into a surprisingly haunting and dreamy track which also has some atmospheric and flowing guitars and synths. Check out the way the drums roll and crash, bringing in the heavier guitars, which in turn usher in Lifeson's crazy good guitar solo.

At the same time, there are some questionable tracks that are a bit starchy and can have some vocals that seem to lack any emotion, and these unfortunately come at the first of the album with "Falling Down", "Blessed" and the very odd and disjointed "Radical Radicals". This can happen on some of the tracks and the main problem seems to be in the vocals being a bit overly processed. This is really apparent in "A New Body for Your Soul", which I believe is sung by Marco. The music itself is nice, but the vocals are bad and would have been better off if they weren't processed so much. I don't care how bad of a singer you are, I would rather hear your vocals natural than have them sound like they are coming from a tin can. "Cry" has much better vocals and, even though the song itself is pretty basic, at least it proves that unprocessed vocals are much better. "A Working Town" has starchy vocals, but at least the instrumental sections save it somewhat.

However, strengths and weaknesses of the album can be weighed, but overall, the album comes across as a raw showcase of Minnemann's compositional and musical skills. The idea is definitely ambitious, and there really isn't any concentration on any one singular instrument and this makes the album come across as NOT being an ego trip of any kind, which is one of the weaknesses of many solo albums that concentrate on one performer and one major instrument. That is a big strength for this album, that it doesn't come across that way at all. The standout tracks are worth checking out, and the fact that there are other great tracks make it all worth while, and also makes it easy to overlook the occasional questionable tracks. The trick to this album though, is to get through the first 4 or 5 tracks, which are lacking a bit of emotion and seem a bit haphazard. It might seem like a lot to ask, but the real heart of the album comes after that, and remember, there is still a lot of album left. Overall, it leaves a great impression when all is said and done, and the high points of the album are really high. It all averages out to a great 4 star album.