It's exactly a year ago this month that we first picked up Robert Farmer's superb album 'In a dream' for review and now, one year on, it's the turn of Robert's follow up 'Seeing Red' which has already received some heftily glowing reviews.
The album opens up with the Gabriel-esque account of our times in 'Seeing red' complete with some intricate Irish pipes and some inescapably accomplished guitar and bass work. The arrangement with it's multitude of 'world' sentiments and expressions is worthy of some praise and appreciation for it's uniquely focused delivery and for it's very smartly engineered sound. Seeing red heralds the welcome return of an immensely talented songwriter and recording artist in top form!
Beneath the Surface opens with some nice reggae-isms that provide the background to a hauntingly refreshing vocal. It would seem that Robert's engineering and production skills have excelled beyond what we'd expect after only a year between albums, but this is what he's good at and Beneath the surface is further evidence of just how good. Watch out for the nicely combined keyboard and horn sections at around the 2.40 mark.. nice touches Robert!
Hey Man' Keep On Running meanwhile, brings forth a more industrialized Farmer than we've experienced to date. The arrangement is explicit in it's design, look and feel, but the lyrics are perceptive and empathetic in their charge towards that moment when we get to the 2.20 position on the counter when our lives become inexorably linked with Robert's observation. A must have musically accomplished and inventive track likely to be referred to by other reviewers as one that kicks ass!
Here Comes the Rain is the one that will raise eyelids, eyebrows, and attentiveness all at the same time. It's a bit Jazzy, a bit alternative, and a whole bit intelligent in a world that has a habit of rehashing the markets for dumb music for a wrongly assumed target audience. The song has elements that are every bit has enticing and enterprising as it is melancholic and truthful but the gain for us is in listening to a very remarkable approach to capturing all four elements in one swoop!
The previous incarnation of Coming Back to Philadelphia on Robert Farmer's In A Dream album was quite pioneering in it's delivery, production, and musicianship. For this remixed and revisited excursion, we have crisper vocals and enhanced richness via the guitar work and separation, but perhaps the main thing the remix has going for it is that it's become an anthem for an anthem for a remarkable composer/producer. I have found that, no matter what mood I'm in, Philadelphia keeps me wired to the comfort zones that I think we all need to keep close by every now and then. Coming Back to Philadelphia was and still is a brilliant piece of work!
There's something I have to admit when I look at two words strung together to form things like Island Lady. I've never met one, never known one, and I'm unlikely ever to pursue one. On the other hand, what we have here is a hint of the Caribbean form with all the mustered brightness and colour that steel drums and skippy tempos summon up. It's a kind of allowed departure from the Robert Farmer we know and I'm wondering if perhaps the adventure to the genre was a good thing or a brilliant thing, a good move or a sensible move... you should decide cos Robert already did.
Another very smart compositional change-of-direction approach is cited in Robert's inescapably brilliant The Drummer in Me. The electronics, rhythms, percussions and horn bits are dead exciting examples of proficiency and experience that belong in the title credits of a movie with lots of city stuff going on. Everyone that I have blessed with this piece was droolingly impressed! Wake Up Call on the other hand, takes us back to the other side of the brilliance that Mr Farmer is capable of and is a very male version of the best of what Kate Bush is all about. Here we have superb innovation (he'll kill me for maintaining this!), wonderful production and some very smart instrument work. Vocals, as always, are superb and persuasive and the lyrics... dear me the lyrics are very coolly crafted indeed!
Bring It On is probably what the current music industry and 'buyers market' has been trying to wish forward for the past three decades. I'd love to have co-produced this but as you can see Robert did a fantastic job without me and the guitar work leaves you 'gobsmacked' with appreciation and utter respect. I'm gonna ask him for one of his guitar picks... in fact... I keep asking artists like Robert and Andrea Perry and not one of them has obliged! Bring it on is a thing for the movie industry... it's in their court now! For the rest of you.. buy the f&*ing album and rejoice in that purchase!
I do wish I could play like Mr Farmer. I have some stunning guitars, some brilliant keyboards and some high end studio stuff, but I don't have what Robert has in abundance on tracks like Bring it on, Coming Back to Philadelphia, and Why Can't You See? It's the final track on the album and is very sensibly placed as the 'got have so much more' ending to a very fine release. Vocals are excellent, arrangements are progressive and enriching, and Robert Farmer's expertise in grabbing you by the collar and insisting works very well indeed! You too will share the utterly senseless loss when the track ends!
I was asked to be brutally honest in this review. My issue with that request is that I could not have been any more honest if Robert De Niro's lie detector in 'Meet The Fokkers' had been employed and I honestly say that for those of you who feel your record collection is lacking... it most definitely is for as long as it does not include this album!
