Trevor Rabin’s first solo album (after leaving Rabbit and well before joining Yes), this is really (with one or two exceptions) not a progressive rock album. I’ve included it in that section because of Rabin’s tenure in Yes. Much of this calls to mind that band’s output from the years when Rabin was there, but there’s a lot of other sounds, too. Perhaps the most frequent to show up on this set are Sweet, Queen, The Beatles and ELO. All in all, it’s a good album with a couple points that transcend into brilliance.
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Track by Track Review
Getting to Know You Better
This hard rocker is almost metal, but it also has some early Rush in the mix. The chorus is trademark Trevor Rabin in terms of the vocal arrangement – and yet, it also reminds me a lot of Sweet.
Finding Me a Way Back Home A fast paced jam starts this off and really calls to mind the type of music Rabin would do later in Yes. The cut moves out to a more straightforward sound from there and we get the real interesting stuff in terms of the vocal arrangement. Multiple layers serve to lend some serious drama. There’s an instrumental break later in the track that’s based on the introduction and it really goes a long way to making me think of “Cinema” by Yes.
All I Want Is Your Love More or less, this is a straightforward pop rock number, but it has trademark Rabin wall of vocals. It’s also got a couple twists and turns.
Live a Bit This one is arguably progressive rock on its own. Surely there are portions of the piece that call to mind Rabin era Yes. I really like this one. It’s diverse, dynamic and powerful. It’s a highlight of the disc for sure.
Fantasy A bit odd, this one alternates between a Sweet like catchy rock number and something that’s very funky and almost disco-like. The instrumental break is more proggy. So is the outro.
Stay with Me A powered up ballad, there is a lot of The Beatles here. It sounds at times like ELO, too. Then again, with as big an influence on ELO as the Beatles were, that’s a logical comparison.
Red Desert The keyboards that start this off remind me of ELP, but then it shifts out to a more frantic, straightforward rock sound. You can definitely hear precursors of the sound that Rabin would later bring to Yes here, but it also makes me think of both Sweet and Queen.
Painted Picture Although there are some other elements here, the predominant ones are those Beatles meets ELO sounds. This is catchy and rather cool.
Love Life The intro to this one is quite fast, a bit weird and very much like the sort of sound that made up Yes’ “Cinema.” The song proper, though, is a pure funk fest. This is really a disco number, with a few prog sections thrown in here and there.
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