Welcome to the EvO:R Independent CD Reviews Section.
I would like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves to everyone. The EvO:R review section features reviews from various independent musicians that submit material for our consideration.

I wanted to let you know a little about our review teams collective thoughts on music. It's important to let the people we review know what we think of their music and how we listened to their creations.

We hold nothing back! The team has been instructed to be honest and respectful of all CD's reviewed.

The EvO:R CD Review Team

Hello again!

Once again it has been awhile. Personal issues etc forced me into an unintended hiatus from reviews but I am back.

This installment brings us to Eric Frederickson. Eric and his family hail from Denver Colorado. This is his third CD.

To start off with, Eric has a pleasant voice; his acoustic guitar playing is quite good. That said, I had some issues listening to this recording. Many of the songs sound like they are the fruit of great IDEAS. Eric has a good sense of STRUCTURING a song but there were many spots in the recordings, on several songs, that I longed to hear some instrument take the lead.

The first track, ‘Parker’ is an example. Starting out promising enough, with a strong musical hook, the vocals come in but are very low in the mix. Add to that an extended, repetitious segment based on the main theme with NO development, or melodic interlude at all, and you get the feeling this song is an unfinished demo. Eric does provide individual insight into each song in his liner notes, and alludes to this song being somewhat unfinished. Before I go any further, let me state categorically, that I like his lyrics, a lot. Eric has, as I stated a good command of song structure, and his vocal melodies themselves, and harmony overdubs, are for the most part spot on.

OK, so back to the songs. He played everything and programmed everything, with the exception of bass played by Pietr Buttlemann on the track "Westwood” and didgeridoo on the track "Green and White", played by Justin Chappelle. There is one cover song on the cd, called ‘Sparrow Out of Season’, by Brent Finnegan et al, with the lyrics somewhat ‘massaged’ by Frederickson for his version. This was one of the better sounding songs on here, possibly because it was an interpretation of a song and according to Eric, one of his favorites. I did enjoy this one.

The issue I have overall, is that the mastering is uneven, some songs being noticeably louder than others, and somewhat uneven mixes, particularly with the vocal levels ( at times ), and some of the drum levels are very low. I think that if Eric had had the benefit of a good producer, and one or two extra musicians, to help flesh out these songs, the cd would be a whole lot better. What I heard was a lot of potential, but sadly a weak result. One other negative is that I found the bass playing to be very limited, essentially the root notes of all the chords played somewhat pedantically. BOY!!!! That’s a lot of piling on! Lest anyone think I am picking on Eric, please understand that the spirit of this critique is intended to be constructive. Earlier I said that the first track started out promisingly enough, with a strong musical hook. This is true of most of the songs here. The problem is there is no punchline to the setup.

My score: 5 out of 10.

Song Samples from the CD
All song samples are from Eric Frederickson's home page.

Parker  Westwood  Sparrow Out of Season  Main Street 

Green and White  Alone  Silent Shadows  Noise  Giant  Learning to Paint  Nostalgic Dreams 

Conclusion:

One note: the CD package itself is beautiful, the pictures are awesome and the graphics are rendered expertly. Eric’s extensive notes for each track do provide a look into the meaning of the songs, and make the whole thing more personal. Also, on his website, there are links to his other 2 releases, with sound samples of every track available. I did sample a few, and there is a lot of promise there as well. I would be curious as to how the full tunes compare to this, his latest. I encourage you to go there, listen, and act accordingly. Cheers!

Rating

My score: 5 out of 10.

Joel Pirard ...EvO:R Reviewer.



About the Editor:
Joel Pirard- has been playing, writing, and recording original rock music for years, as a guitarist, bassist and keyboardist. Pop-rock and Progressive rock explorations, are a big part of Joel’s resume. Currently playing and writing in THE JDA PROJECT, and most recently, JESTER’S PROMENADE, Joel finds himself having the best of times working with musicians he has had a long association with. THE JDA PROJECT features Don Pitz whom Joel met in 1981 and in 1985, Arno Tietje.

JESTER’S PROMENADE features Joel, with ex-ORION and ex-AVALON USA bandmates John Curtin, and CJ Truitt, and ex-AVALON USA drummer and lyricist Bruce Henninger. Joel balances musical time with a rich family life, in New York State , with his wife Alexandra, and their 3 children. Joel Pirard- staff reviewer
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