Torben Enevoldsen does not leave much to be said about his talent, he lets his music and shredding talk for him. And there is no denying that he is a gifted guitarist. But to me he leaves a little something to be said about his songwriting. I simply do not feel that his songwriting skills are up to his skills on the guitar. All of the tunes sound very alike, or well the backing tracks do, I guess they are made up by
Torben Enevoldsens favorite chords, or at least the chords that he enjoys playing solo a melody over.
Flying Solo has a, well in lack of a better word, home made feeling to it, but that does not have to be a bad thing, and in this case it really isn't, apart from the ill sound of the programmed drums. I really feel that the programmed drums lets this album down a bit, they simply do not sound good enough if you ask me. They really do feel and sound like a drum machine, and I'm not saying that you have to be ashamed or try to hide the fact that you use a drummachine, all I'm saying is that you can do yours to try to make the drums sound good by getting some good drum samples and sounds. And with this recording I feel that the drum sounds have not been given the attention they should have.
Yes I know that this is a guitar album, and what most people listen to is the guitar and rightfully so, but the overall picture is only as good as it's weakest link (well sound), and here that is the dums.
When talking about a guitar album, it would be odd not to look at how the guitarist play, and in this case we are looking at
Torben Enevoldsen's solo style as we have already covered the backing tracks and the way they are played.
While I have said many times already that Enevoldsen is a very skilled guitarist, I must admit, that I am not a big fan of the way he plays his solos. You can say he plays solo in sections, so a track consist of a background track covered with many many little solos. So instead of a few large ones, which I feel gives a tune a solid and natural flow,
Torben Enevoldsen rips off a solo then stops, rips off another one then stops, rips one yet again then stops, you get the picture. His soloing kinda makes you feel like you are drag racing each light in a city that has a lot of lights very close together.
When it comes to instrumental albums you either love or hate them, and I have always loved instrumental albums, but like with any other album, you should have a reason for putting out the album, rather than just because you have a bunch of songs that you like. I mean your album should not have to be a revelation, but it should be something different and something out of the ordinary and I do not feel that Flying Solo is.
Bottom line: And as I said earlier I don't feel that the tunes on this album live up to
Torben Enevoldsen's talent, well neither does the album really. But don't get me wrong, this is not a totally bad album, it is just an album that just doesn't stand out, in a world full of great musicians putting out guitar oriented instrumental albums.
Written by
Morten Friday, August 19, 2005
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