Bruce Hornsby - Spirit Trail
First off, for full disclosure, I've not heard this album before despite being familiar with Bruce's first two albums as noted when I correctly guessed this week's selection. It was a great initial write-up by
@RobMCFC, and probably better than the album itself for overall storytelling, which is indeed a big compliment.
After listening to both discs more than 4 times now, there are 3 things that stood out to me on this selection.
1. the lyrics - yes, probably the strong point of the album enjoyment for me was this aspect. The album deals with some heavy themes, including bigotry, religion, spirituality, and interesting characters that are morally conflicted in some way or another. However despite these heavy themes, the album is pretty upbeat and joyful (which is mostly due to the second positive listed below). The tracks I mostly enjoyed the lyrics to included "King of the Hill" (big boss man), "Preacher, Pts. 1&2" (the snake), "Sad Moon" (naked back), "Fortunate Son" (poor son of a gun), "Sneaking Up on.." (Boo), "Great Divide" (not just a 1998 theme), "Line In the Dust" (or maybe it was me?), "Sunlight Moon" (little ones can't hide their sorrow), "Listen To the Silence" (quiet time), and "Swan Song" (miss the times).
2. the piano (Disc 1) and synths (Disc 2) - without question Bruce's biggest draw is his abilities on the piano, and he shows this to great degree, especially on Song C and D, which were both favorites of mine. I did enjoy the change of pace with more of a synth influence in Disc 2, which I think was a welcome break to some of the songs on Disc 1 that I felt overstayed their duration with what appeared to me to be additional piano noodling, just for the sake of. I'm not complaining at all for listening to Disc 2, because I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much without the synth songs adding to the mostly piano-centric on the first.
3. the production - yes, as many have mentioned, this was a crisp, clear, and well heard and produced jazzy and R&B hard to pin down album
The Big Winner - to borrow a concept from our playlist thread, this had to be "Resting Place". The lyrics were fine enough here, but it was really the music that made this one shine. Being honest with myself, this would be the one song I'd like come back to repeatedly and an enjoyable listen from start to finish. The piano solo fills in well for the lack of where a guitar solo might go. No complaints here.
Other songs I enjoyed the most musically were "Preacher Pt. 2", "Songs C" and "D", "Line In The Dust", and "Swan Song". Bruce's vocals seemed like night (Pt. 1) and day (Pt. 2) on those two tracks. Maybe the slow tempo songs suit him better? (an honest question)
And for my next segment...
Ok, I'm glad that wasn't just me hearing that hit me over the head on the beginning of that track. ;-)
"Song D"'s opening reminded me a bit of Vince Guaraldi from
A Charlie Brown Christmas. "Sunlight Moon", and even "Swan Song" started off with which appeared to be more than similar nods to "The Way It Is". "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley" reminded me of a few tracks from the Firm Soundtrack, arranged and played by Dave Grusin. All piano virtuosos, along with Bruce.
This artist and album are unique, I will agree there. I think the biggest challenge to me was getting past the overly piano dominated music and some of the vocals, which were fine, but in most cases didn't move me like on his first 2 albums. I checked out the lyrics in depth in reviewing this, both knowing Bruce's reputation as a songwriter and as part of this. I'm not sure I'd be doing that based on the music alone on the majority of tracks where I'm complimenting the lyrics above in point 1. While I found the music fine, it mostly didn't move me save for the tracks I listed above. I was delving into the lyrics, but not because I loved the music.
For me, this overall is a
6.5/10 and after going back and listening to
The Way It Is and
Scenes From the Southside this week, I think his vocals just sounded better overall there. Even though his band "The Range" has that 80's dated sound, I felt the added instruments gave those albums a bit more variety than I was hearing (and admittedly missing) here. After hearing "Every Little Kiss" and "Mandolin Rain", I remembered why those and others originally stuck with me back then.
I can certainly understand why he's still a fan favorite and still making music to this day. I will see if I can catch him live should he be touring in the future. It's been a while there for me since Burruss Auditorium.