ZINC (GREEN ALBUM)

Before I bought this album I wanted to kill my curiosity: "How would it like if Mr. Jobson composed his own music through his own album?". This happened after I was amazed with his contribution in UK especially through live concerts "Night After Night" and "Concert Classic Vol. 4". My expectation of his solo album was very high because I truly admired him being in studio album of UK as well as concert album. What I found at first spin was a great disappointment. Not because of his musicianship or performance. Yes, I admit that he is a virtuoso in electric violin as well as keyboard. I admired him as I did the same with Jean Luc Ponty, Didier Lockwood, or Jerry Goodman on violin part of his talent. But, making his own music is a different ballgame, I would say. Listening to this album at first time was a bit flabbergasted for me personally - not to mention I was a bit upset. It's probably my fault on putting high expectation about him. If he did a great job in UK while he had to share his play with Holdsworth on guitar and Wetton, or Bruford, it would be really great if he did it all alone.

The major flaw of this album is on composition and harmonies. I don't see the flow of music in this album is cohesive as the arrangement sounds like being "forced" sounding like this. If I might compare the style, this album is pretty similar with Tony Banks' "The Fugitive" with pop touches. Zinc is not that pop as The Fugitive but from the vocal department it's pretty clear that it's like a pop rock arrangement. Yes, for those of you who like his style with UK, his keyboard work sounds like that - but it's not as fashionable like Time To Kill in UK. I do not consider his involvement with Jethro Tull something that's really remarkable - because as the Tull album "A" was supposed to be an Ian Anderson's solo album. So you can imagine the extent of contribution Mr. Jobson was in the "A" album.

Is it a bad album? Nope! Not at all . I still can enjoy this album, especially during the time (recently) when I heard that this album would be added in this site - I played it many times in its entirety. But, I still found something is missing. I thought the inclusion of Gary Green (Gentle Giant) on guitar would help a lot - it's not that obvious. So, I should categorize this album as collectors / fans only. If you are a truly fan of Jobson, definitely you will enjoy it. But, I would not recommend this album to prog newbie. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW