Firefall's 'Luna Sea' provides strong
followup to year-old debut album
Review by Andy Riggs
A little over a year ago, an album was released by a
new band, Firefall, and quickly skyrocketed to the top
in album sales. On that album were three songs that
reached the top ten in singles sales, A tremendously
successful debut.
. It wasn't surprising. Firefall was composed of a very
talented group of individuals who had played with the
Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers in previous years.
And they play good music. The first Firefall album
mmmisnc
had few flaws. It was new and exciting,, and it was 1
ByrdBurritos influenced. ;
. The influence is still there on the new Firefall album,
Luna Sea.
The composers of Firefall's music, Rick Roberts and
Larry Burnett, lend heavy influence through their vocals
and guitar playing as well. Michael Clarke is on drums,
Jock Bartley plays guitars, Mark Andes plays bass. They
all sing. Firefall has extremely good vocal harmonies.
On Luna Sea, there is a new addition to the band, 1
David Muse. Muse plays keyboards, organ, sax, flutes,
harmonica, and moog,,and all his talents are displayed
on the new album.
Side one begins with the familiar harmonies and
drifting lead guitars that characterize Firefall music.
Rick Roberts sings the lead, but the effort is a total one,
an indication of the tightness of the band. "So Long" is
a justification for leaving a lover,
Roberts is also the composer of the next cut, "Just
Remember I Love You", an acoustic ballad:
"When the blues come callin' at the break of dawn
Rain keeps fallin'but the rainbow's gone, ', .
Just remember J love you ,.
And it will be all right, . .it will be all right.
The sax backing by Muse is forceful, and a good
. addition to the sound of the band,
The rest of side one contains another love song by
Roberts, a boogie number by Burnett, and one that is
co-written by the entire band. Roberts song shows his
extremely wide range as a vocalist, the cut by Burnett is
good musically, but has trite vocals. Not up to Firefall
standards.
Side two begins with more of the trite vocals that
seem to be Burnett's style on Luna Sea. It might sound
better if Roberts helped out with writing. There are
bight sides, however,
"Only a Fool" is a song filled with comparisons,
"In a moment of madness
I let you say goodbye
You never miss your water
'Til the well runs dry. . .
Even a fool like me should know
Only a fool would let you go."
. Roberts seems to be quite emotional on this album,
every song he writes has romantic sadness attached. The
songs are all strongly stated, vocally and instrumentally.
The last song on the album is probably the one that
will make it big on AM radio, Too bad, for the song is
really quite good.
"Even Steven" begins strongly with electric guitar,
and is joined by more active backing by the band, The
presence of David Muse again is noticeable on keyboards
Art by Andy Riggs
and a blazing solo on tenor sax.
One of the hardest things for a band to do is to
follow up a great debut album with one that is even
better, Firefall probably knows this as well as anyone.
Luna Sea is a good album. One apparent weakness is
the writing of Larry Burnett, He seems almost incapable
of making any sense of his lyrics. But the addition of
Muse and the brilliance of Roberts make the album well
worth listening to, This is an album that might have a
tendency to grow on you.
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