Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Top Topham - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions


Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing



I have discovered many, many very fine albums through Mark Barry's recommendations.  For me, though, this wasn't one of them.  

Unusually, I wasn't quite as taken with this album as Mark and some others have been.  It's an instrumental album which is fine by me; my reservations lie in that I don't find Top Topham's playing very inspiring.  He's a good guitarist, there's no doubt about it, but much of the time here I don't find much in the way of soul or inner fire in what he does.  The style struck me as bit like Hank Marvin's playing on the early Shadows records; I love those records and Hank's playing is simply great in the context, but for me that same slightly pop-ish feel doesn't quite fit with the bluesy material here.  As a result, I found this a bit of a disappointment.  It's not a bad album by any means, but after a while I start to miss any real guts in the music and I get that "do I really want to hear another track of this?" feeling.

Plenty of good, thoughtful reviewers think this is a really good album so don't let me put you off, but personally I'm not bonkers about it.

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