'Ray Wilson' is known to the progressive world for co-writing the last 'Genesis' album, 'Calling All Station' and replacing 'Phil Colins' in 1997 on vocals, but, this talented, fairly low-key artist who has opened for some of the world's greatests, has an impressive career with albums in styles as diverse as hard-rock with 'She' released in 2011 with his former band 'Stiltskin' but also in much quieter moods with for example this beautiful acoustic 'Song for a Friend' in 2016 in which he offered us one of his best albums of his entire career with the last track being the cover of 'High Hopes' by the 'Floyds' which still gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it, Ray being a performer exuding beautiful emotions. The same year saw the release of 'Makes Me Think Of Home' and 2019 saw the release of a compilation 'Upon My Life' which can be a great way, for those who don't know him to get the different sides of this talented artist. Ray's new baby 'The Weight of Man', released at the end of August 2021, is in the continuity of 'Makes Me Think Of Home' and we find this style mixing pop and progressive rock in intimate atmospheres and 'You Could Have Been Someone', which starts the album, is the perfect example with a slow tempo on which 'Ray Wilson' lays his sweet voice providing a beautiful moment of evasion. The beautiful journey continues with the album's eponymous track which is a pure melodic gem in a 'Floydian' atmosphere, with the fleeting interventions of 'Ali Ferguson' bringing this beautiful parallel and 'Yogi Lang' from 'RPWL' backing up 'Jethro Bodean' on keyboards. The following tracks are just as warm and I could mention them all because they make us continue our beautiful journey through these quiet and melancholic atmospheres with melodies on which we abandon ourselves completely, lulled by Ray's harmonious vocals and I often found this parallel with 'RPWL' with for example the very beautiful compositions 'We Knew the Truth Once' or 'The Last Laugh' or 'Symptomatic'.
In summary, with this latest album of 'Ray Wilson', to borrow these words from 'Charles Beaudelaire', we embark on a beautiful musical journey where "everything is order, beauty, luxury, calm and pleasure" showing once again the talent of the Scotsman who now has nothing to prove but continues to enchant us with each release of album... | |
