CD Review: Justin Hayward – Spirits of the Western Sky
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Review: B
 |
| Justin Hayward - Spirits of the Western Sky 2013 |
Justin Hayward hasn’t completely gone country. Only part of Spirits of the Western Sky, Hayward’s
first solo album since 1996’s The View
from the Hill, was recorded in Nashville, and it doesn’t take an Earl
Scruggs or an Emmylou Harris to figure out which songs he did in Music City.
Accented with plucked banjo, some light fiddle and mandolin,
the gorgeously rendered, heartfelt acoustic sketches “It’s Cold Outside of Your
Heart,” “What You Resist Persists” and “Broken Dream” roll around in down-home
bluegrass and glow incandescently, like fireflies trapped in a Mason jar. And
the breezy pop touch of “Captivated by You,” seemingly spun from pure ‘70s
soft-rock gold, could easily have taken inspiration from some of country’s best
songwriters – that is if the choruses weren’t so lushly orchestrated.
Concerned as always with matters of the heart and
spirituality, the Moody Blues’ lead vocalist and guitarist also spent time
recording in Genoa, Italy, and there’s a sophisticated pop sensibility at work
here that takes advantage of Academy Award-winning composer Anne Dudley’s much-ballyhooed
skills. Always willing to flesh out skeletal arrangements with orchestral
flourishes, as the Moody Blues have often done, Hayward strums his acoustic
guitar so lightly that it’s almost whispering as he puts Dudley’s talents to
work on such dreamy, string-laden fare as “One Day, Someday,” “The Eastern Sun”
and “The Western Sky.” None of them are quite as intoxicating as the melodic
cocktails served by Burt Bacharach or as mysterious and bruised as the soul of
Nick Drake, but Hayward is getting close.
What sinks Spirits of
the Western Sky is how drenched in heavy-handed sentimentality – both musically
and lyrically – the record is, as the always-earnest Hayward just can’t help
but go overboard on “In Your Blue Eyes” and whitewash “On the Road to Love” in
utter pop blandness. A romantic at heart, Hayward is always going to go for the
grand heartfelt gesture, and sometimes it’s truly gorgeous and sometimes it’s
the wan, sickly “Lazy Afternoon” that comes through the door. And then there’s
the matter of the two remixed electronic dance versions of the Moody Blues
favorite “Out There Somewhere” that close Spirits
of the Western Sky. Surprisingly contemporary sounding – unlike that dated, cringe-worthy album cover – and hypnotic, they
still feel as completely out of place as … well, Justin Hayward at a rave.
- – Peter Lindblad
