Alan White
Ramshackled

When in 1976 Yes decided to take a break after the exhausting Relayer tour, each of them released a solo work, perhaps to change mindset, perhaps to once follow their own ideas, their own path and create for once with their own head. Among the five, there are those who succeeded admirally (above all, of course, Chris Squire), those who did fairly well (Steve Howe), those with quite fluctuating and certainly not extraordinary results (Jon Anderson and Patrick Moraz), and those who just didn't make it, like Alan White and his "Ramshackled."

The reason? Very simple: it's not really his album. It is, but it's not, given that Alan White acts as a mere figurehead and simple performer, because he doesn't even sign a single track. The pieces were all written by Colin Gibson (bass), Kenny Craddock (keyboards), and Peter Ketley (guitar), among the plethora of sessionmen hired for this (dis)music adventure.

There is nothing in this album that makes your eyes pop or strikes the listener and it certainly is no surprise that in terms of sales "Ramshackled" turned out to be an episode to say the least insignificant. It's amazing how even the album cover, often, is associated in our minds with its content: to say the least, horrible.

An airy soul/funky influence permeates almost the entire album duration, or at least in the sung parts (by an anonymous singer named Alan Marshall) and this perhaps makes it all much more cloying. The second-rate soul of Everybody and Giddy, the predictable reggae of Silly Woman, the excessive slowness of Darkness, the funky of Ooooh Baby!, or the lightness of One Way Rag officially make this album a poorly executed work.

Somewhat better are the instrumental tracks, the experimental Avakak and the delicate Marching Into a Bottle, but perhaps the only song truly worthy of note is Song Of Innocence, with two distinguished guests like yesmates Jon Anderson and Steve Howe, who however cannot manage to lift the general flatness that prevails in the album.

The most disheartening thing about this album is definitely the drumming performance of Alan White himself, which is unconvincing and doesn't show what he is capable of, especially if compared to what he demonstrated with Yes. Quite an average drumming characterizes the album, a symptom of too much relaxation. It almost seems that Alan was not at all ready to take the reins of a band, or anyway of a group of session musicians. In this work, Alan White unfortunately feeds the cliché that drummers are the least suited to being songwriters.

So it seems clear that this work was done more to not fall behind compared to the other Yes members rather than for pure artistic inspiration. "Ramshackled" is undoubtedly an episode to forget (and fortunately forgotten by most). When there are no ideas, perhaps it's better not to start a project, especially as important as a studio album.