Okay, I have to admit when this started I pretty much hated it. His voice was harsh, the music was overpowering and somehow didn't fit. Then we got onto "The Flower Lady" and it was a whole lot better. Kind of a cross maybe between Harry Chapin and Don MacLean. Anyway much better and I liked the lyrical material. Thought I would hate the ragtime-ish "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" but I found I loved it. The dark humour in the lyric was wonderful and the breezy melody really counterpointed this, worked really well. "I've Had Her" was just beautiful, merging the best of Manilow piano and a really relaxed mellow vocal. Probably could have done without the horns in the midsection, but a really nice song even so. Very bitter lyric I must say.
Back to upbeat uptempo almost jazz for "Miranda" which is, well, okay. Bit of a showtune style to it, kind of Randy Newman or something. Maybe. The change in time signature is interesting, though not much more than that. I'd say the song is stretched a little, quite repetitive which sort of bears that observation out. "The Party" sounds like something out of a late-night lounge or something, guy could certainly play the piano, that's for sure. I would say that he's showing off a little here though, sort of a sixties Dream Theater? This song hits another new time signature halfway too, and it does change the tempo and the feel of it, though for me the jury is still sequestered in the hotel working out whether or not it works at this point. It's almost a gimmick, I feel. And he's done it twice now. Okay I do like the way he takes the piss out of himself at the end of the song, so points for that.
The next, and final, two are both over eight minutes long, and I hope they're not stretched out just for the sake of it. So far a few of his songs have given me this impression, that they could have been shorter and worked just as well. Cello and violin works on the title track, with the guitar picking its way through the tune. Pleasant enough. The odd tune-up and the clarinet intro to "The Crucifixion" sounds quite Biblical all right, but it seems to me a little discordant or dissonant (wassa difference?) until the orchestra comes in strongly. Then it goes back to atonal (huh?) again and it's kind of hard to really follow the melody, at least for me it is. Yeah, I can't say I like this, and as it's the longest track (almost nine minutes) that sucks for me. Oh well. Actually hated that.
But overall quite impressed. The guy was obviously a student of human nature, and knew what he was writing about. Wouldn't be my kind of thing, but I can see the value in it certainly.
Rating: 7/10
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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