Roine Stolt - Wall Street voodoo - [InsideOut]

2006-02-01

Roine Stolt, before anything else, is a guitar player, and one of the best ones in our days, after this one little fact, I can continue telling you that he is also a singer, songwriter, producer, and to make this long story short, one of the best and most productive artists in today's prog world, already having almost countless releases, as a solo artist, as the front man for The Flower Kings, as a part from the super group "Transatlantic", or just backing up as a lead guitar for Neal Morse's last album, and more then few old prog band Kaipa albums. Every time a bell rings somewhere over the world, Roine Stolt releases another album.

We all know the phenomenon that goes by the name "guitar albums", usually an album made by guitarist which make it the most interesting instrument on the album and the rest Is kind of neglected, on this one, there is as much an effort on every instrument or playing part as much as there is in the guitar part, making it nothing less then great.

To add up some more interesting facts about this album, it has a large guest appearance from Neal Mores behalf, in charge of most keyboards, and a whole lotta vocals (in my opinion Morse and Stolt could be the Lennon and McCartney of the prog world), more appearances on this album, Is a list of doubtable artists, that were given alternate names, explaining it by saying that there were contracting problems about their guest appearance, so he couldn't write their real names, from rumors, and by listening to the album those guys could easily be the rest of the flower kings (including Gildenlow), but for intensions of leaving it as a Stolt Solo album their names were changed.

This album was supposed to be a more of a blues album, instead it got to be this blues. Prog album with some twists every now and then. The album is filled with original guitar parts, which are amazing both technically and feel wise, it think Roine is one of the few guitar player who can mix is feeling into the guitar playing and still play on a very high technical and complex level.

The lyrics seems to be very aggressive towards the capitalistic world, and it's possible to see it in songs titles such as "everybody is trying to sell you something", "it's all about the money", everyone wants to rule the world" and the list goes on, in general, it seem to talk about the estate of the world, Stolt is a man who likes to sit down every now and then and ponder about the way this world is heading, it is vary much implied in the lyrics he writes.

The songs, even though they are longer then the 3 minuets songs most of us were trained to love, are as addictive, they carry you with their flow and you get hypnotized by them, you can just sit for 11 minuets with no urge to move, Stolt and Morse can carry you to wherever they like to, and you'll go there, because at the time the song's playing, this is where you want to be.

A lot of people claim that this album sounds too much like the flower kings, and a lot like any other Stolt project, and actually, "everyone want to rule the world" could've easily be found on a transatlantic album, some say that this is the outcome for him releasing so many album all the time, that he is bound to repeat himself, in my opinion, it has a same feeling as much of his projects, but that has to do with a mans style, I think that this album is a living proof of Stolts influence on the artists he works with, his personal style and ways always have a way of surfing the music, and you can always hear it when Stolt does his thing.

Regarding to Morse, who is in charge of most keyboard an a large amount of vocals, there's not much to say, you can't go wrong with this guy, and having them both on one album, it's like listening to a Beatles album and waiting for it to sound bad, it just won't happen. Morse and Stolt together have a way of making complex music in an ear friendly and addictive way.

I can go on and on about this album, but the bottom line is that this is a great album that accomplishes to be as unique as it is addictive to the ears. Recommended to prog lovers, Spock's Beard lovers and Flower kings lovers, Transatlantic lovers, guitarists, keyboard players… the hell with it, everyone has to give this one a spin

Roy Povarchik