EARTHWORKS

This isn't as bad as I was led to believe by some reviews out there. Still I consider this nothing more than a 3 star album so there's that. Bruford shifts gears in his career here in 1987 to a more straight up Jazz direction with this acoustic quartet. Keyboards, horns, acoustic bass(of course) and drums. Bouncey is a good word for a lot of this, lightweight might be another. Just not my music scene at all but I did like the track "Emotional Shirt" a lot. My favourite by far. It's catchy at first with keyboards, horns and heavy beats before it all deconstructs after 2 minutes and a new soundscape arrives that's fast paced with bass out in front then piano followed by a horn. Good stuff! The track "The Shepherd Is Eternal" is pretty cool because we get this atmosphere that starts to pulse then it gets windy as a solo horn arrives offering up these mournful expressions. "It Needn't End In Tears" sounds like a Christmas carol and "My Heart Declares A Holiday" sounds like a dance song from one of the islands. The rest is okay but this isn't all bad that's for sure.