SOUL ENVY

Well, once again I witness the rise of a talented musician, whose writing and composing skills can be appreciated in any of his songs. From Canada, Id Guinness released his debut album back in 2007, and this 2010 he shared to the world his second and so far latest album, entitled "Soul Envy". We can feel lucky, because the whole album can be listened for free via last.fm so if you have time, please go and give it a spin.

Though I have to admit that I would not describe Id Guinness music as the best example of progressive rock, it is evident his link to this musical genre, and his talent to create interesting compositions, with richness of sounds and moods. What I really like about this album, is that variety and connection between the songs, though them all are quite different.

This album features fourteen compositions and a total time of fifty six minutes, so you can imagine the songs are relatively short, which does not mean they are weak, not at all. Id Guinness work is pretty interesting, he plays guitars, percussion and keyboards, and with his voice produces some nice textures and moods. But he has some guest musicians who added their grain of sand, in the second song, we can notice the sound of a violin, creating a cool atmosphere, gently and in moments relaxing.

My favorite song is the fifth track, "Face the Sun" creates a fantastic harmony between music and listener, the voice has a lot to do with that, but also the guitar riffs and the sound of the synthesizer, one can notice several sounds on each second, and all of them build up a cool and interesting structure, that produce images and things to the listener, in this case of course, to me.

While the tracks pass, we can appreciate different stages of his music, from a sweet and melodic track, to more alternative oriented one; from soft and nice catchy songs, to more complex and challenging ones. But well, as all (or at least most) of the albums, it has its pros and cons, here, there are moments that I didn't really enjoy, or well, not how I would have liked, those tracks are "How to Howl", "Three Steps" and "Life as we Know it". ESMA, is a short interlude that at first I thought was unnecessary but later I realized was essential to the musical climax of the album.

But well, just as I pointed my less favorite moments, I must mention the songs that make me smile and feel comfortable while listening. The first, as I already mentioned is "Face the Sun", amazing to my ears. "Square One", "Going to Burning Man" which reminds me to a Led Zep track, "Annapurna" or "Free World", all of them, worth listening tracks.

The album is good, I see my colleagues reviewers were very positive towards it and gave it four stars, I, to be honest, have been struggling with it, because though I do like and enjoy it, every single time I have listened to it, I have never felt that enthusiastic, and in moments, some tracks bore me. Now regarding the progressive rock thing, as I said above, this would not be the best example, so I would not say it is a highly recommendable album for rock fans. For that, I will ive three stars, to this nice album from this promising musician.

Enjoy it!

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