Radiant Moon is an American band of experienced musicians - Brian Facklam (keys, clarinet, vocals), David Shahin (guitar, bass, keys, vocals), Jimmy Grillo (drums) and Nick Lieto - who have now released their debut album called Now's The Time. After a couple of spins of Radiant Moon's album, I would "label" their music as melodic, prog rock with a seventies feel, influenced by notorious bands like Yes, The Moody Blues, Genesis and even Spock's Beard. Now's The Time opens with the longest track of the album called Waking Dream and for me this is the highlight of this album for sure, as it is a complex, mid-tempo, diverse prog rock song with a musical intro truly reminding me of Spock's Beard. The opening track is filled with beautiful melodies, keys solos, guitar solos and lots of variety, and after hearing this song my expectations for this album were very high indeed. Follow up Castaway is again very melodic and very Genesis-like in the beginning, evolving into a more neo-prog like song, ending with an acoustic guitar piece. The title track, One Life and We Are One, are all three ballad-like songs with lots of piano and even clarinet and trumpet solos, which are for me superfluous indeed.... Keep The Faith, starting with a piano intro is a rather run of the mill song, going nowhere actually, while the instrumental Leave Yourself Alone sounds like jazz rock, featuring flute, sax, and a nice funky guitar solo by guest musician Ryan Johnson. Nirvana opens, again, with a piano motif and is actually a kind of pleasant, funky anthem, while Take My Hand is, just like the before mentioned Keep The Faith, a truly simple song, again with a saxophone solo, which is, again, not really my cup of tea....Finally, the nostalgic, ballad-like song Never Again ends this rather "mixed" album; as Now's The Time kicks off wonderfully with the prog rock gem Waking Dream, but never reaches that high musical level again on the rest of the album..... Some tracks even sound "dated" and "too" simple, so I really do not know what to think of Radiant Moon's debut album. Conclusion: these guys are certainly skilled musicians, and they prove this in the opening track for 100%, but Radiant Moon's debut album also leaves much to be desired indeed. *** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
