Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 08-28-2012, 10:37 AM

Talent rains down

Artiste: Erik Norlander
Nationality: American
Album: Stars rain down
Year: 2004
Label: Think Tank
Genre: Heavy Metal
Tracks:
Rome is burning
Beware the vampires
One of the machines
Mariner
Sky full of stars
Lost highway
Arrival
Neurosaur
Heavy Metal Symphony
Project Blue Prince
Fly
Oblivion days
Space: 1999
Chronological position: Fourth (solo) album
Familiarity: Some guest appearances on the likes of Roswell Six, Daniele Liverani and Lana Lane albums
Interesting factoid: He's Lana Lane's husband
Initial impression: Self-indulgent, overblown keyboard rock
Best track(s): Mariner, Sky full of stars, Lost highway, Neurosaur
Worst track(s): Beware the vampires, Project Blue Prince
Comments: Erik Norlander is someone I've always experienced through others. Although he could be described as a session musician, perhaps the session musician, he has a solo career of his own, and indeed fronts two bands as well. But I've never listened to one of his albums. I've heard his work on Lana Lane's material, and other places as noted above, but not in a context of just listening to his playing, his songs, his ideas. You might say I've experienced the essence of Norlander, without actually perceiving the man behind the music.

This is the fourth of, to date, seven solo albums, and so being more or less in the middle of his solo career is possibly a good place to start. As might be expected with an album from a keyboard player, it's heavily oriented on the side of keys, but Norlander eschews the idea of singing, concentrating instead on his keyboard work, and vocal duties are divided between Kelly Keeling and his own better half, Lane joining Keeling on the first track but more as a backing vocalist than in any sort of duet. To be honest, a lot of this is overblown, indulgent keyboard rock, and though the album is not cited as a live effort, it's a bit annoying to hear applause after each track (so far) which surely must be tacked on?

Things get a little better with One of the machines and the ballad Mariner, with Norlander happy to restrict himself to a rather lovely piano melody and the song benefitting from some lush strings arrangements. Standout so far. There's a cheeky intro from Vangelis's Chariots of fire to start off the longest track on the album, the ten-minute Sky full of stars, which believe it or not is an instrumental, and a real tour-de-force for both Norlander and his guitarist. Sublime.

I have to admit, I was underwhelmed with this album at the start, but as it's gone on it's thrown off its mantle of self-indulgence and cliche and has revealed itself to be something really wirth taking the time to listen to. The lovely solo performance by Lana Lane on Lost highway is almost worth the price of admission on its own, then there's the space-rock instrumental Neurosaur featuring some beautiful classical piano from Erik as well as thumping synth work and powerhammer guitar. And okay, going to Erik's own website I now see that yes, this is a live album, but not of one concert: it's a collection of live recordings from 2001 to 2003, so forgive the “tacked-on” comment earlier.

Mind you, Project Blue Prince lets the whole thing down, being half-full of announcements and samples of conversations, only getting going instrumentally near the end. Terrible. Luckily, Lana's back for Fly, but maddeningly though it starts off as a slow, sultry ballad it then changes into a fretfest rocker, which is a little off-putting, but she stays on vocals for the heavy rock cruncher Oblivion days, and the album ends by putting a smile on the faces of old sci-fi geeks like me with a rendition of the theme to the old TV show “Space: 1999” --- nice one, Erik!
Overall impression: Much better than when it started; liked this a lot.
Intention: Will now have to listen to his other albums.

08-28-2012, 10:37 AM	#66 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Talent rains down Artiste: Erik Norlander Nationality: American Album: Stars rain down Year: 2004 Label: Think Tank Genre: Heavy Metal Tracks: Rome is burning Beware the vampires One of the machines Mariner Sky full of stars Lost highway Arrival Neurosaur Heavy Metal Symphony Project Blue Prince Fly Oblivion days Space: 1999 Chronological position: Fourth (solo) album Familiarity: Some guest appearances on the likes of Roswell Six, Daniele Liverani and Lana Lane albums Interesting factoid: He's Lana Lane's husband Initial impression: Self-indulgent, overblown keyboard rock Best track(s): Mariner, Sky full of stars, Lost highway, Neurosaur Worst track(s): Beware the vampires, Project Blue Prince Comments: Erik Norlander is someone I've always experienced through others. Although he could be described as a session musician, perhaps the session musician, he has a solo career of his own, and indeed fronts two bands as well. But I've never listened to one of his albums. I've heard his work on Lana Lane's material, and other places as noted above, but not in a context of just listening to his playing, his songs, his ideas. You might say I've experienced the essence of Norlander, without actually perceiving the man behind the music. This is the fourth of, to date, seven solo albums, and so being more or less in the middle of his solo career is possibly a good place to start. As might be expected with an album from a keyboard player, it's heavily oriented on the side of keys, but Norlander eschews the idea of singing, concentrating instead on his keyboard work, and vocal duties are divided between Kelly Keeling and his own better half, Lane joining Keeling on the first track but more as a backing vocalist than in any sort of duet. To be honest, a lot of this is overblown, indulgent keyboard rock, and though the album is not cited as a live effort, it's a bit annoying to hear applause after each track (so far) which surely must be tacked on? Things get a little better with One of the machines and the ballad Mariner, with Norlander happy to restrict himself to a rather lovely piano melody and the song benefitting from some lush strings arrangements. Standout so far. There's a cheeky intro from Vangelis's Chariots of fire to start off the longest track on the album, the ten-minute Sky full of stars, which believe it or not is an instrumental, and a real tour-de-force for both Norlander and his guitarist. Sublime. I have to admit, I was underwhelmed with this album at the start, but as it's gone on it's thrown off its mantle of self-indulgence and cliche and has revealed itself to be something really wirth taking the time to listen to. The lovely solo performance by Lana Lane on Lost highway is almost worth the price of admission on its own, then there's the space-rock instrumental Neurosaur featuring some beautiful classical piano from Erik as well as thumping synth work and powerhammer guitar. And okay, going to Erik's own website I now see that yes, this is a live album, but not of one concert: it's a collection of live recordings from 2001 to 2003, so forgive the “tacked-on” comment earlier. Mind you, Project Blue Prince lets the whole thing down, being half-full of announcements and samples of conversations, only getting going instrumentally near the end. Terrible. Luckily, Lana's back for Fly, but maddeningly though it starts off as a slow, sultry ballad it then changes into a fretfest rocker, which is a little off-putting, but she stays on vocals for the heavy rock cruncher Oblivion days, and the album ends by putting a smile on the faces of old sci-fi geeks like me with a rendition of the theme to the old TV show “Space: 1999” --- nice one, Erik! Overall impression: Much better than when it started; liked this a lot. Intention: Will now have to listen to his other albums. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 11:11 AM.