release date: 1988
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Marty Willson-Piper & Andy Mason
label: Rykodisc - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "O' Stockholm" - 2. "Water" - 3. "She's King" - 5. "You Whisper" - 8. "On the Tip of My Tongue"
2nd solo album by Marty Willson-Piper (guitarist in The Church) released on Rykodisc in Australia / New Zealand, in North America, and on the sub-label Ryko Analogue for cassette and vinyl editions. The original CD edition contains six bonus tracks, which are selected songs from Willson-Piper's 1987 debut album, In Reflection, and thus the CD has a running time of more than 73 minutes and comes with 19 tracks. By the way, Andy Mason participated on the '87 album as technician, bassist, and arranger. All tracks here are credited Willson-Piper - however "Water" was co-written with Swedish Ann Carlberger of the band Pink Champagne with whom he paired up and married. Incidentally, The Church's lead vocalist Steve Kilbey formed a pair during this period with Swedish Karin Jansson, also from Pink Champagne. Carlberger and Jansson traveled to Australia together after their band broke up in the mid-80s, and they there met the two members of The Church. Jansson got twins with Kilbey, and Carlberger had a daughter with Willson-Piper. Like Kilbey, Willson-Piper originates from England but around 1980 moved to Australia.
The music isn't far from the jangle-pop style from the releases with The Church, but is mostly only acoustic here, and Willson-Piper plays most of the instruments himself with vocal assistance from Carlberger on two songs and various instruments played by producer Andy Mason.
It's generally fine music - it just doesn't appear particularly strong as an independent work when considering the back catalogue of The Church. The music here mainly focuses on harmonies and the compositions appear a little simpler with small variations reminding us of Bob Dylan and George Harrison.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
