I was in on the stretch of arguably Chris Rea's string of best recordings some 20 - 25 years ago. They were "On The Beach", "Road To Hell", and "Auberge." Yeah, you remember now, don't you? That smoky, husky, breathy voice and Dire Straits-like music...my wife loved it. He lost me on the subsequent release and I haven't really been curious since. Not that Rea has dropped out of sight, au contraire, he's released more than a dozen solos, compilations, and boxed sets, including an eleven CD set of blues recorded over an eighteen month period after he survived a near-death experience. So when "Santo Spirito" crossed my new release notices a couple of months ago with the "blues" genre tag, I thought what the heck and purchased it without a sampling. My mistake...
With this man's credibility, especially in Europe, why the hell would you use a drum machine/programming?! It's like listening to the one-man performance from the pool deck or on the patio at Bahama Breeze. Just shoot me... Not all of the tracks employ it, but the fact that even one does is beyond me. The record isn't bad, just disappointing. Try this track from the album. It's got a jazzy intro and switches to blues a couple of minutes in. If you are intrigued, and some of you may be, many of the record's songs are on that same channel so dial another up, but come back here and tell me you don't hear the sameness of the fret work and song structures.
Still, it's not a compete waste of money. I'm keeping a couple of tracks, but I guarantee they won't contain the drum machine and won't be played back to back.
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