“The greatest worker”.
Tireless and zealous, hyper-productive.
Hero of socialist labor, drowned in idleness and vodka, that is, Aleksej Grigor'evich Stakhanov.
Hero of the American imagination, and beyond.
Superman, partially bipolar, endowed with special powers.
An example for both young and old, vulnerable to kryptonite, that is, Superman (Clark Kent/Kal El).
An astonishing output in 29 years of official activity.
Multi-instrumentalist and singer.
He seemingly has no weaknesses, except for the semi-anonymity, that is, Richie Kotzen.
Out of sheer curiosity, after a very banal Facebook search, “The Edge” has 17 million followers, “Slash” has 11 million, John Frusciante has 7.8 million fans, while Kotzen's talent is followed by 255 thousand people, or 1/10 of Tiziano Ferro.
Kotzen has the dedication of a miner and the superpowers of the Kryptonian journalist (he plays guitar and sings like a demigod), but he has never benefited from the deserved fame.
In previous reviews, I've read comparisons to Chris Cornell and Glenn Hughes. I find myself perfectly aligned with the late leader of “Soundgarden” and “Audioslave”, a bit less with the second, but, in this album, the multi-instrumentalist from Reading winks at soul, also approaching Marvin Gaye or, in the falsettos, Gallant.
The 21st solo album, after the superb works with Sheehan and Portnoy (“The Winery Dogs”), is an album of 10 tracks emerging from the voluminous boxes of “Kotzenian” production, thus before letting things shipwreck in the depths of the soul, “Salting Earth” is born.
A cover between the horrid and the indecent. Black dunes created with the 2D graphics of the Commodore64 on which the name of the work appears, an insensible Doom Metal Style writing reminds us of the artist's name, and a terrible photoshop makes Richie’s eyes sink into a harrowing contrast of colors like pink/orange.
As they say, you can’t judge an album by its cover, luckily.
Entirely played and mixed by Kotzen himself (voice, guitar, piano, bass, and drums) except for some backing vocals by his partner and bassist Julia Lage (in the funky “Make it Easy”).
“It’s something I really needed to do in order to reset myself / E’ qualcosa di cui avevo realmente bisogno per resettarmi”.
After all the collaborations and side projects, in this album, the former “Poison” and “Mr. Big” resets himself and allows himself to range from the hard-rock “End of Earth” (captivating riff, scratchy voice, singable refrain, and a magnificent solo to embellish the finale) and “Thunder” (great energy and solid vocal performance), to the ballads of “I’ve got you” (a polished pop, late '80s) and “My Rock” (which could satisfy a certain target of lovers with a rock'n'roll soul).
Close to some works of “The Winery Dog” is the third track, “Divine Power”, grim and monolithic, while totally unexpected is “This is Life” that confronts us with an astonishing vocal performance, for technique and expression, in the soul realm, while the bluesy phase arrives in “Meds”.
The minimal but well-crafted interventions on the “Rhodes” of “Cannon Ball” introduce us to the first single and the album's last track, namely “Grammy”, which immediately reminded me of the radio pop-rock of John Mayer.
Let's give Kotzen what belongs to Kotzen: a modern-day Stakhanovite superhero.
In fact, let's give him something more too, as he deserves it!
Tracklist
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