Artist: Vinnie Moore
Title: To the Core
Type: Album
Label: Mascot Records
Vinnie Moore is a self-confessed “guitar freak”. This wasn’t the best news I’d ever heard as I put this album on to play, imagining a load of self-indulgent widdling. Well sure, it’s kind of one long guitar solo, and there’s the potential for a lot of face pulling out there, but to its credit it’s not a vanity competition with the vocalist, because there isn’t one. Above all Vinnie Moore is a brilliant guitarist. He has played with Alice Cooper and currently performs with UFO, and has won recognition in his 20+ years of recording and touring for his playing contributions to album-oriented rock and classic hard rock. But let’s look at “To the Core”.
The real beauty of this album is that each track has something to say. It helps that this guy could make his guitar walk down the street. Really this album is one to sit back to, absorb and enjoy. There’s nothing remotely threatening about this instrumental rock ode. It moves and grooves from start to finish, but what I found intriguing also was that each track tells its own story and creates a picture without the need for lyrics. The opener is lofty, sophisticated and has motion. Appropriately it is called “Fly”. “Panic Attack” is funky, “Off the Hook” is jazzy, while “Transcendence” has the exotic sound of the East about it. Then my personal favourite, “Soul Caravan”, with the help of the backing group, conjures up the image of a big city bar on a warm, balmy night. It’s all so silky smooth. It’s impossible to avoid self-indulgence completely but it’s equally impossible to avoid the technical quality and the sense that Mr Moore is sharing his talent and enjoyment with us as he makes his guitar walk and talk. Moments of great emotional appeal abound, none more so than on the last track “Into the Sunset”, which has the air of majestic finality.
I don’t know Vinnie Moore personally but after listening to “To the Core”, I feel like I do. It’s as if he’s talking to us, not in the conventional way, but through the language of the guitar. I like it because it covers all sorts of styles but ultimately makes no claims to do anything other than what it does. Furthermore, it’s of the highest quality and there’s a great fusion of emotion and exquisite ambiance. The feelgood factor is here. Listen and appreciate.
http://www.vinniemoore.com
http://www.myspace.com/vinniemoore
http://www.mascotrecords.com
Andrew Doherty
MTUK HOME
