It has been way too long since Steven McCabe’s last album, 2007’s ‘Too Many Goodbyes’, and I wasn’t sure if there would be another, but at long last he is back with his 16th studio album to date. I’m not saying that I have known him for a long time, but I have the early albums on pre-recorded cassette tapes, so I guess that you can say that I am fairly familiar with the music. As has been the case on many of his albums he has been joined by Christopher Knight on drums and percussion, while Ken Senior (isn’t it about time we had another Evolution album?) provides vocals on one track. Everything else is by Mr McCabe, and as ever he shows himself to be a dab hand at both guitar and keyboards as he creates music that is sometimes evocative of Gong and Camel as well as bringing in some neo and even fusion influences as well. The use both of ‘live’ drums and moving between keyboards and guitar means that this generally sounds like a band as opposed to a multi-instrumentalist project.
Melody as opposed to repeated mindless meandering is the order of the day and this is very much an album of six songs, even though five them don’t contain any words. ‘Un-Apology’ is one of my favourites, very much in your face with clever interplay between the lead instruments and quite a funky Seventies feel throughout with some dated keyboard sounds and a real groove to the whole thing. It fairly belts along and is a joy throughout. But, a very special mention needs to go to the title track, which is one of Steven’s most epic numbers to date. At more than eighteen minutes long there is plenty of room for the music to move in many different ways (and it even contains some great sax work!) , and each time I play it I find that it draws me in, taking me to a world that contains complex arrangements and layers yet also has a simple elegance, as one might well expect.
It is possible to stream the album on his website at http://www.elegantsimplicity.com so why not give it a listen and see what you think? Let’s hope that we don’t have to wait so long for the next one.
