Good songwriting, good vocals, and nearly all the Millennium
C. G. Frank | Fox Cities, Wisconsin | 12/07/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Well first off....if you're going to pick up a Sandy Salisbury album get this one, not the one that has the same picture of him except with a green-flowery background (all the tracks on that one are on this one...plus more!)
As you must know Sandy (Graham) Salisbury was part of the Millennium/Sagittarius collective. If you do not know that, then go and get Millennium "Begin" and Sagittarius "Present Tense" at the least...then move onto the solo stuff. I'm not saying this isn't as good as the group albums, but those are the places to start for sure.
Sandy's solo stuff is absolutely great, don't get me wrong. It seems to me when listening to his solo stuff you can hear the great influence he had on the Millennium recordings as a whole. I think that Sandy is the most fluid and straightforward of the Millennium-affiliated songwriters. Sure most would mention Curt Boettcher, but Sandy's compositions are so easy to get while not being to predictable. For me it's all about good song structure and Sandy is one of the best at crafting flowing songs. One thing that may turn people off is how sugary-sweet the majority of Sandy's lyrics and vocals are. For sure the lot of the lyrics are lovey-dovey this and that, but I can get past that. Sandy's vocals are without a doubt sugary sweet, pure honey if you will, and I personally love it. Sandy is a great singer and most of his vocal arrangements are unique and hip, if you will.
This album contains almost all quality tracks, with a few clunkers. Beautiful, dreamy, slide-guitar infused ballads--"Hills of Vermont" & "Cecily", to the near garage-band rock of--"Spell on Me" & "Do Unto Others". This collection covers a lot of ground to say the least. They call it "Soft-Pop", heck, they call the Millennium "Soft-Pop".....yet I don't think I'd call either that. Pop is generally soft in some fashion to begin with, and adding soft in from of it and tagging it to this is unjust I think. Sure it's soft at times, and maybe Sandy's voice is so sweet that it deserves this "Soft-pop" tag that people give it, but I would think otherwise. I'm pretty sure when Sandy and the collective sat down to write songs they didn't say, "Hey, let's get softer, let's get as wimpy as we can". Guessing they probably were in it for rock and roll and making noise and having fun. This album is fun, Sandy seems to be fun....so, if you want something to sing a long to on a nice breezy summer day pick this collection of Sandy Salisbury's work up.
"
Track Listings (25) - Disc #1