“Wake up dreamer, wake up, don’t you know your day has come…” – these words are the motto of a new album by a musician hiding behind the pseudonym Root. So, dear reader, wake up, I have a story about a very interesting album to tell.
In 1998 Dreams Of Green album was released, in 1999 – Follow The Dawn, in 2000 – Poles Apart, in 2003 – Resolution, and in 2005 – Illumination. This summer, there comes an album entitled Wooden Hill. All of those CDs are signed with the name “Root” which is the artistic nickname of a British musician David Kendall. He plays all the instruments, sings, produces his albums, records them in his own recording studio, illustrates album covers and takes care of his website – all by himself. A real “D.I.Y man”. Thanks to this, he can probably avoid unwanted conflicts, unnecessary artistic compromises, which usually accompany work in a group and he can realize his musical ideas without any obstacles and present them to the public without having to change anything from his original intentions. Thanks to this he is also able to plan the direction in which his music is going to follow quickly on his next recordings, basing it on the fans’ reaction. According to the fans and the critics, Resolution was rather a pure prog album, whereas Illumination was more melody-pop orientated. On his latest album, David decided to mix those two streams and choose the most interesting elements from them so that the Wooden Hill would please the widest group of listeners.
And indeed, on the album you can hear melodic and light themes as well as more complicated and extended arrangements. But there is no division to pop tracks and progressive tracks here. It’s just the opposite. Everything that I mentioned above is happening during each composition. All 8 tracks of the album merge those two streams and thanks to this Wooden Hill is a very mature rock music with numerous accessible melodic lines. Peacefulness and harmony radiate from this album. Kendall doesn’t accelerate when it’s unnecessary, he plays the sound in a melodic and dignified way.
I’ve an impression that on the new Root’s album the guitar is domineering and that a couple of times it takes over the keyboards. When we are presented with a guitar solo it is rather kind of melodic in the Andy Latimer’s or David Gilmour’s style than played at a breakneck speed. What disturbs me a little bit on Wooden Hill is the sound of the synthetic, computer-generated drums. I think that a real instrument would add color and grace to Kendall’s music.
But still, I think that Wooden Hill is the very pleasant album in quite a big Root discography. He won’t make a stylistic revolution in rock music society, but the fans of melodic and peaceful playing on the very high level will surely find something for them on this very nice album.
