HERE

So what can we expect from an Adrian Belew solo album after his highly prolific career with King Crimson, The Bears, Frank Zappa David Bowie and Talking Heads to name a few? What's that? ...an album of pop tunes with some Crimsonesque sounds here and there?

This is a nice little album which indeed sounds nothing like any of the Belew-collaborations which is probably because here he decided to do it all himself. By that I mean literally everything! The compositions are your straight forward rock songs but they have just the right hooks to keep me going from start to finish. The album even manages to deliver a few nice surprises like the atmospheric Fly or the Paul McCartney-sounding vocals on I See You which makes me smile every time I hear it!

The songs might have a straight forward structure but there is a definite Adrian Belew twist to it all that makes me want to revisit this album from time to time. My favorite track is Burned By The Fire We Make which is a cliché environmental song about people harming the planet but it just hits the right nerve with me and the chorus is just great.

After all the great things I had to say about this album I'll still have to settle for a non-essential rating since there is definitely no prog here.

***** star songs: May 1, 1990 (4:02) Burned By The Fire We Make (3:10)

**** star songs: I See You (2:42) Survival In The Wild (4:09) Fly (4:45) Never Enough (3:43) Peace On Earth (2:55) Dreamlife (2:29) Brave New World (3:44) Futurevision (4:15)

*** star songs: Here (4:28) Postcard From Holland (2:49) Hidden Track (1:46)