Product Reviews

Album: Montpellier

Members: Roy Webber, Paul Middleton, Pete Sage, Roger Narraway, Will Jackson, Nick Glennie-Smith, Frank Mizen

Genre: Other, Pop, Rock

Label: AIS

Tracks: 8

Release Date: November 8, 2011

Discs: 1

Rating: 2.38 (out of 4.00)

GRADE: C+

“Montpellier” opens up with ‘Sailor’, a song that is such a mixture of sounds that at first listen I didn’t quite like what I was hearing. But that was because there was so much coming at me that I couldn’t quite put my finger on whether or not to like the song. Right from the beginning the song starts off with this low, mellow sound with birds, maybe a seagulls sounding out, it was almost like a nature song that I was listening to. Though the opening to the song is short, only little over a minute long, then the vocals start in. Those first few moments of the vocals by Roy Webber had too much of a nasal sound to them. It was a such a boring opening vocals to a song that started off with such a catching set of sounds. However, the song does get better, the nasal sound remains, it just sounds better than the opening portion of the song.

I liked every song on this album except for one, ‘Sister Moon’. It was the lyrics of the song coupled with the whine of the vocals that got on my nerves. By repeating the lyric “sister” so many times along with the drawn out cords for some of the lyrics I couldn’t enjoy the song. I don’t know if this song was supposed to be mellow or not but it ended up being too slow for me to get interested in listening to. Though, this was the only song that I didn’t like, the rest of the album is really good. I was actually amazed by the song ‘Surfing’ and have listened to it the most. This one song gives the whole album it’s true feel, one of grandeur, like it’s a set of songs that would be played during a very dramatic play.

Wally has put out a CD that does what I like the most, it changes up the sound of the songs with each song. Taking songs that start with someone talking, then going into a song that’s mellow with a slow beat into a rock song before going back to being a mellow song. The beats in these songs are fun, they made me do a little dancing bob in my chair, I was tapping my foot, and a few times tapping out the beat on the desk. Listening to this album was almost like being put into a story where it was the soundtrack for myself as I went along for the ride.