Hughes, Gary: Waterside

I'm fairly confident that it was Neil Young, in the mid-70s who suggested that if you wanted to meet more interesting people then you should get out of the middle of the road. On Waterside, Gary Hughes, he of Ten fame is slap bang in the middle of the proverbial street. That's right, he's gone down the M55 of life and actually, produced an exceptional collection of songs, which, in bygone times would almost certainly have had a good chance of mass popularity given that Mr. Hughes has reined in all the more uncommercial traits of Ten and much of his solo material.

Gary Hughes has never met a kitchen sink which he didn't want to throw at a song. It's often seemed to me, and I'm a huge fan, that he loves nothing more than whacking a eight minute intro before any given song and preferably about four or five false endings as well. Sometimes I have found his work a little unwieldy if equally bloody awesome as well. On Waterside things are much more restrained and concise.

Bookended unusually by a couple of slower tunes Waterside is full of excellent classic rock (but not too heavy) tunes that I could definitely imagine hearing on ultra conservative stations here in the |UK such as Smooth or such as the many of the tunes herein scream 'housewife hit.' This is definitely a criticism as the entire album is strewn with earworm tunage and lush sounds. Also, there are little 80s style hints on certain songs such as the opening keys on "The Runaway Damned" which have a very short echo of "St. Elmo's Fire" about them. I honestly believe. This song morphs into a kind of Fylde Coast Springsteen effort and such it's magnificent. Furthermore I could hear the wonderful "Screaming In The Half Light" on Radio 2 if performed by somebody like Zara Larsson or Rita Ora. Not that I would ever listen to Radio 2!

I'm calling it right now, this is the best Gary Hughes solo album yet and almost a certainty to be in my favourite albums of 2021.

Line-up:

Gary Hughes -Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Guitars

Dann Rosingana -Lead Guitar

David Rosingana - Bass Guitar

Darrel Treece-Birch - Keyboards and Drums

Karen Fell - Backing Vocals

Scott Hughes - Lead and Backing Vocals

Track Listing:
All At Once It Feels Like I Believe

Electra- Glide

Lay Down

The Runaway Damned

Screaming In The Half Light

Waterside

Video Show

Save My Soul

Seduce Me

When Love Is Done

Added: March 27th 2021
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Artist Facebook Page
Hits: 984
Language: english

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