Flight of the Knife

Monday, May 19, 2008 | 1:06 PM

If there is going to be a more obvious explosion of musical creativity in 2008, I'd like to hear it. But I'm willing to bet that the second album from Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears will be the sonic supernova that will stay on my Ipod for the next several weeks, if not months.

Combining elements of ELO, Squeeze, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Elton John and XTC into a power pop-prog confection that is irresistible and stands up to repeated listenings, Scary and his shockingly solid, terrifically tight band - keyboardist Mike Acreman, drummer Brian Bauer, guitarist Graham Norwood and bassist David Ostrem - rip through a dozen new songs with abandon. The album kicks off with the title track (Part One, of course) displaying multi-layered Jeff Lynne vocals, and then settles into a Chris Squire-esque funky groove with a solid chorus. Venus Ambassador is the Dukes of Stratosphear crossed with the Move, and Imitation of the Sky is a endlessly hummable pop classic (complete with a ripping guitar solo) that is so good it's, well, kinda scary.

The album chugs along, taking us through the multiple time changes and fractured song structures (do I detect Fiery Furnaces ADD here?), but never loses its focus. Some critics have complained that the multiplicity of influences shows that Scary is merely a master imitator and not a true artist. Yeah, sure. And T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland is just a collection of other poets' work strung together. The question is not Scary's influences- all of which I personally love - but what he does with them. On Flight of the Knife, all of the great pop music of the last 40-some-odd years is used like clay, molded into new, inventive creations that are wondrous to behold. Sure, The Purple Rocket has a Robert Fripp Crimson-era section (and a chorus that sounds like the Archies), but what's wrong with that? Critics seem to think it's simple to imitate the Beatles, but if it is, how come we don't get a new Abbey Road every month? I'll tell you why (and so will Scary and, probably, Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood): because it's unbelievably hard to do it well.

The last four songs are just as good as the other eight, and with Mama Waits, the Gentle Giant-ish Son of Stab, the piano driven ballad Heaven on a Bird and the final title track reprise, the album comes to a satisfying close. If you're looking for a record that will leave you shaking your head in wonder - a rarity these days, I can tell you - click on over to ITunes, and go flying.

By Zach Galligan in Zach Galligan | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (0)

Tags: zach galligan