Holly's Song
Blue
Sanity Check Musec, Inc.
2000
13 tracks
A great deal of thought and hard work has gone into the creation and production of Holly's Song. It seems clear that the young artist who calls himself only Blue has put a lot of himself into this work. For these reasons alone, one wants to be able to find positive aspects of this suite of inter-related songs.
It's not hard to find positives. Holly's Song is a big, lushly produced piece that approaches rock opera in scope if not in energy. This is a true solo project, with Blue doing all the writing, performance, production, and even graphics. He is clearly talented in all these areas and the project gains a certain unity from having one guiding hand throughout the creative process.
Taken as a whole, however, Holly's Song comes across mostly as pretentious and derivative. Blue subtitles his piece "a gothic drama in four acts" and there's a lot of the problem. It's as though he has tried to write an opera but has failed to achieve the necessary depth and emotion. Blue could use an editor or a producer, or perhaps both, not to revise his vision but to help him gain a sharper focus.
The music is a relic of the Seventies, echoing the lush sound of big theme album rock from that era (The Who, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, etc.), but lacking the energy that drove that music. These tracks have a superficial feel, an emptiness. This may be a result of one artist recording all tracks in a studio where, being also the producer, there is no objective person present to assess the result. Had Blue gathered a group of musicians to play with him, the synergy of the players might have driven this music to greater heights.
Blue's lyrics also suffer from self-editing. While there is some potentially powerful material here, the lyrics are ridden with cliche and the commonplace. These lyrics do not rise to dramatic heights of the subject matter. Here again, Blue could have used an editor, or at least someone to act as a sounding-board as he polished his words.
There's nothing really wrong with this release. From top to bottom, it's a polished professional piece of work clearly not hastily conceived. Yet, throughout there's a sense that with just a little more attention it could be a whole lot better.
I have always believed that you can't see something clearly when you're in the middle of it. This may be Blue's handicap: that he has no objective view from outside his project to spot the areas that need further development or refinement.
Blue is an interesting and prolific artist whose work deserves to be watched. While it is in some ways flawed, Holly's Song is a valiant and ambitious attempt at a very difficult concept.
More information on Holly's Song is available at SanityCheck.net.
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