PERMISSION TO FLY

Dream Theater keyboard player Rudess is back with his latest solo album, and while he has often gone down the fully solo path in the past, this time he has brought in That Joe Payne (The Enid) on vocals, Darby Todd (Devin Townsend) on drums and Steve Dadaian on guitar, as well as guest guitar solos from Bastian Martinez. He also relinquished the task of writing the lyrics this time around, as he decided to focus on the music, and asked by his daughter, Ariana to provide them for him which is a nice way of keeping them in the family.

The result is a pleasant release, no more than that, with Payne often spending a lot of time high in the register and falsetto, which provides quite a contrast to the music beneath him which can be quite heavy in nature in places, far more pop in others. I have heard a few of Rudess's solo releases over the years, while of course being very familiar with his work with Dream Theater, and he is rightly regarded as one of the very finest keyboard players in the business, but this album feels to me as if he is just playing it safe. When he allows himself the opportunity to demonstrate his skills it lifts this album to new levels, but unfortunately there is just not enough of this as he is often happy to sit back in the middle of the road and relax while Payne lulls us to sleep with his very high but often emotionless vocals. It is not a bad album, but there are many places where it is just plain boring, and one just wonders what is the point? Possibly he has taken this as a relaxation period in his life, as there is no doubt that his work with DT is way more demanding but for me this is just too twee and he is taken way too much of a backseat to Payne.