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Rob Smith – “Never a Dull Moment” – Review!!!

Rob Smith - Never a Dull Moment

“Cinderella” – I just get a real classic vibe from this song. Real nice opener. Almost something I could see Bryan Adams doing. The other vibe I get is that it would be incredible too see some of this stuff given the live treatment, cause this man has quite a catalog of great songs!!!

“It’s Getting on top of Me” – Again this seems instantly classic to me – kinda like when you think you’ve heard something before but you haven’t. Real pumping stuff. A little bit more attitude than the melodic opener, not that this isn’t melodic either though, but things are turned up half a notch if you will. Love the riffs. Great rocking and rolling,
and the bass lines really jump out and compliment the song bigtime!! Would love to be in the crowd screaming “It’s getting on top of me” for that breakdown bit! Yeah!!

“Never a Dull Moment” – As with all of the songs really, but this chorus is a real goody to my ears – the groove really seems to kick in at the chorus, and the melody is awesome. Some nice guitar interplay between Rob and Rob haha. Always tastiness going on which is what it’s about – totally complimenting the song which to me is the best kinda playing.

“What Happened to my World?” – OK so before any morons get in, yes this song is inspired by and probably loosely based on “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Credit for even going there – I know with my own music I’d sound like a retard if I tried something like this, but Rob does it extremely convincingly here – the guitars
definitely could be Brian May playing them, and the vocal harmonies could be the three guys overdubbing til the cows come home. The difference of course is that everything
on this track is one guy – Sir Robollio Smith!!! Epic!!!

“Free Spirit” – Gotta relate to the lyric in this one for sure!!! The guitar doodles throughout this wouldn’t be out of place in the most popular of songs of today. Very catchy.

“Freedom to be who I am” – And who you are Rob Smith, is a SHIT HOT acoustic player!!! Damn this song is really something special. Would love to see an album of all stuff like this. Really cool!!!

“You Say You Want to be free” – Some of my comments from “What Happened to my World” could go here – I can’t believe this is all one guy playing and singing this stuff!!! Also check out the song length – quite an effort to have something that long (16 minutes) and keep it interesting. Mr Smith has definitely pulled that off here. This is like
the coolest two or three songs you’ll hear this year but all joined together to equal some epicness!!!! By the way mate, next time people reckon my songs are too long, I’m gonna send them your way haha!!

“On Common Ground” – I get a real spacey kinda vibe from the production on the first part of this song with the clean tones and vocals. REALLY loving the clean guitar solo stuff. I’m always a sucker for a nice clean tone and some tasty licks – which there are plenty of here. The “kit” used for the drum programming seems to really add to this kind of song too. Always nice to hear a vocal cameo from our mate MacGyver (Richard Anderson), a longtime collaborator of Rob’s who contributes lyrics to tracks 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. Sweet track!

“Tears of the Sun” – Reading from the booklet this song was “inspired by the movie of the same name, and dedicated with deep respect to Bruce Willis and Antoine Faqua. I know Rob is a fan of Boston, which is the kinda vibe I get from the start of the song. Way cool anytime that happens!!! Having not seen the movie “Tears of the Sun”, I can only really imagine that if it were my movie this song was referencing, I’d certainly be happy and then some as it’s obvious that both Richard with his lyrics, and Rob with the music absolutely mean it!! Awesome ending to this song!!!

“Good Memories are made to Last” – Some cool interplay between the different guitar parts as always which Rob is so good at. Totally tasty playing with the leads. When the chorus kicks in, I get an image in my head of the video clip to “This is Love” by George Harrison where the family is all hanging out and enjoying each others company on a beautiful sunny day. I hear a bit that the “happier” songs are harder to write, and in my experience as a writer that can be true too. The guys pull it off awesomely here!!

“Let me Out” – BEAUT little bass runs on the intro and throughout. Love the tone as well!! Quite an eerie twist to the song at about 3.13 for a little bit which was cool, and also reminds me that the programming of the drums as always is fantastic on Rob’s stuff. A section like this with the wrong kinda drum sound would just go nowhere, but this was fantastic!!

“You’re Free” – So glad I got more of the acoustic stuff I was digging so much earlier on in the album with “Freedom to be who I am”!! Apparently this was recorded when it was raining outside according to the vocal intro – certainly not a bad way to spend a rainy day, and it almost looks like a tranquil scene – as long as “rain” doesn’t = pissing down rain haha!!

Beautiful song, and a fantastic close to the album!!!

In summing up, wow what a songwriter!!!! Amongst all the totally musically correct performances in the vocals, guitars, bass, keys etc, I guess it’s a possibility that the fact that the songs are all fantastic may be slightly overlooked!!!! So make no mistake – TOP NOTCH songwriting going on here!!! Hell Yeah Rob!!!

Everyone should buy this album and support independent music – the time and effort, and often money as well, is something that most folks don’t even give a second thought to in this age of music being apparently “free”. I sure hope that will change at some point, even though I’m not optimistic it will.

Contact robertsmith (a) xtra.co.nz or breakfree74 (@) gmail.com for purchasing info!!!!

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My thoughts on GONE WILD II (continued)

OK so following on from my initial review of GONE WILD II, disc 1 that you can read here.

GONE WILD II – DISC 2:

“Thunder and Lightning” – I think the story goes with this one that Rob had just shredded his heart out only to discover that his machine ended up eating the tracks on him, and left him wondering “great – what the hell do I do now”. Must have been some incredible stuff on those tracks!! I guess we’ll never know, but what we get on the finished track from the album is pretty damn impressive enough for me!!! If there are any ever GONE WILD live appearances they should totally do this song live!!

“I Caught You Out” – The title makes me think of “Howzat” for a moment, and though that may seem like a pisstake it isn’t!!! This tune is pretty cruisy rock, not too heavy, not too light. Some cool snarls in the vocal. One of those lyrics that any person (decent ones anyway) can relate to.

“Thicker” – The opening of the track reminds me of Melbourne convinience stores – where’d you record that sample guys? Haha. I think I read this was the first time our axe man ever used the drop D tuning (for the non musicians reading, this is where the lowest string of the guitar is lowered two notes, thus producing a much easier way to fret power chords, and also allowing the guitar to obviously play a little bit lower too which can inspire new things as far as composing goes). If I remember correctly too, this is MacGyver doing the much feared “high baller” on this song? Pretty cool stuff all round. Totally slamming heavy. A pretty new thing for the guys in GONE WILD.

“Is It Real” – I wish I wrote this song!! It’s a kinda loungey vibe throughout, and has that feeling of familiarity – like you’ve heard it before, even though you obviously haven’t. Could see this song working real well acoustically at a booze up, complete with yobbo background vocals and everything. Tasty saxophone stuff on this one too. I’m not the hugest phone of the sax usually, but find that when the guys team up with Robin, I’m always into it. Top stuff.

“Karma” – This one fades in with quite a bad arse bass / drums groove. Some sweet playing from Matt here, before the guitar introduces what will be the main hook of the song. When I played this for the first time it instantly grabbed me. Feels very Boston influenced, even down to some of the solos, which is a total credit in my book as they’re a great band. Again, this one should be done live if the guys ever go that way. Amazing song!!

“Doesn’t Really Matter” – Apparently I got some of this kinda stuff wrong with my Disc review, but I’m confident I hear MacGyver lead singing on this one along with Rob, and as usual their voices blend nicely. The main guitar riff of this song almost feels like signature Rob stuff now having heard a bit of it. Good solid rock on display here. Catchy melodies as usual.

“Rise Up” – (Wondering if the intro was recorded during one of the guys bourbon fests? Haha :P) The chorus to this song is a real pumper I gotta say. The song feels very familiar, but I can’t say it really sounds like any specific band…..except GONE WILD!!! That’s where it’s at!!

“The Way of the World” – When this track starts off, you can just tell it’s gonna be epic!! Great chord progression. Nice tasty fretless bass here, and the spoken intro really strikes a nerve I think. Chorus is KILLER!!!!! Great song, and touching on those subjects again that should be touched on a lot more than they are!!

“If Only I Could Find the Words” – This is one of those tracks that kinda makes it suprising that this is the same bunch of guys that also tore our faces off with “Thunder and Lightning” a while back. Totally cruisy funky blues rock that I could hear someone like Ben Harper doing. The piano on this one really adds to it as well. Just a good time all the way on this one musically.

“In the Year of the Blues” – I’d imagine the guys all enjoyed this one a lot being the blues fiends they are!! Loving it. How can you go wrong with the right bunch of guys and some blues!!!

“Where Would We Be” – Without the lyric sheet all I can say is this sounds like a pretty deep nod to a situation with a female companion of someones. Amazing chorus!! Wow!! This one actually I never realised just how cool it was because of all the songs!! Totally melodic and memorable which is 100% cool to me!! Haha some great samples in this one!!

“Bourbon Blues” – This was another track the guys were kind enough to have me play on for them, and I still remember hearing of the idea for the song from Rob – “was just an idea so I went with it” real modest like. I heard the song and went “SHIT – I love this!!” and I still do. Great fun to play to. All the guys did great with their bits. Honoured to be along for it!!

“21st Century Cool” – Not sure where the intro for this is from but I love it, and then the guitar that kicks in. Awesome!!! Sounds a bit like Brian May “Ressurrection” style there which is a compliment and then some!! You kind of expect it to be heavier after that than the main riff of the song that kicks in, which is a nice little twist, cause the obvious thing to do would be to crunch away as loud as possible. Totally catchy choruses here again. Rockin all the way!!

“Wild Boy” – Some cool production on those Breakfree voices coming into the track. This one proves a nice finale to the album – something not too heavy, not too light. Is like the guys want to leave you with their motto to remember them by before the disc finishes. Totally cool harmonies as usual.

Great stuff, and well done on a fantastic album lads!!! For more info, check out http://www.myspace.com/gonewildnz