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Rating:
One of the surprises of 2024. Chris Herin, guitarist of the underrated and not so prolific Tiles, comes out with a solo album and it is a record with a good richness of solutions and arrangements. Some typical features of the band of origin are narrowed and others expanded. The album is generally less prog and decidedly devoid of that hard rock vein that characterizes Tiles. Herin prefers to develop a folk and ethnic vein that in Tiles instead appears much more timidly, limiting itself to some forays into Jethro Tull territories without going too far. Here instead he gives free rein to mandolins, banjos, strings, flutes, oboes, percussion, even a sax solo and a trumpet, all to create an absolutely exciting electro-acoustic package. The impression felt is that of a musician free from his band and therefore free from constraints, who can thus unleash and showcase all his creativity. Although, to be honest, already in the last work of Tiles, the now already dated "Pretending 2 Run" of 2016 (what are they waiting for to return?), there was already a fairly free expression, even that was a work that shone for its variety of solutions.
Notable then also is the cast, Herin does not surround himself with anonymous characters and has around him absolutely remarkable guests, even luxurious, in practice the guests are more famous than the host, even by much, coming also from bands like Jethro Tull, Rush, and Porcupine Tree. We have names of the caliber of Michael Sadler, Martin Barre, Doane Perry, John O'Hara, Peter Frampton, Kim Mitchell, Alex Lifeson, Colin Edwin, Randy McStine, Tim Bowness, and many others… And if we add that the production is taken care of by Terry Brown and the artwork by Hugh Syme, then it's immediately clear that it cannot be a poor or mediocre product.
Those who give particular importance to lyrics and themes (you know that I, on the other hand, often tend to give little importance to them, I'm always very focused on the sound and instrumental work) will most likely be struck by the concept of the album, which is focused on Herin's father's long battle against Alzheimer's, a cause that the same musician has embraced by donating the proceeds of the record to non-profit associations on the disease and even involving several musicians with family cases of the disease.
I believe it is the real surprise of the past year, a folk rock gem that will probably remain in total anonymity but is fully capable of satisfying, even a lot, those who love that approach that mixes electric and acoustic sounds. Worth trying.
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