image courtesy of Rock Rose Music

by Eric Harabadian, Contributing Blogger

Album Review of David Udell: It’s Worth It

This is David Udell’s second solo album and employs a lot of the sounds and textures he’s used in the past as a burgeoning guitarist and keyboardist with St. Louis-based avant-prog group Wax Theatricks and synth-pop instrumentalists Delay Tactics.

Working in a solo context, Udell creates a unique landscape of sound that encompasses elements of pure pop, Americana, prog, ambient, and straight up rock ‘n roll. His satirical lyrics combine with tuneful melodies, while the record’s multi-layered production rides that wave reserved for artists as vast as King Crimson, The Cars, Duran Duran, Phil Manzanera, R.E.M., Steve Hackett, The Beatles, and Can.

Udell is all over the map, in a seat-of-the-pants sort of way, starting with “Watching the Freak Parade.” He bursts out of the shoot, with a spirited rocker that has a clear and clever sense of irony and humor. “It’s Beginning to Look Like Rain” shifts gears down to a spacious, serene kind of vibe. This is an acoustic-flavored tune that spotlights Udell’s keen use of melodic hooks.

photo courtesy of Rock Rose Music

“Slow Song” features his fellow guitar and composer buddy from his mid-’80s Delay Tactics days, Carl Weingarten. The multi-tracked vocals and various echoed guitars give this a strong psychedelic feel.

“The Motion Song” is a composition from Udell’s early ’80s catalog and is a quick and light experiment in natural rhythms and toy percussion. “Our River” has a real Americana vibe, with a psyche component that sets the vocals in a swirling motion like streams down a river. “Solid Ground” has a folk-like early British feel that is accentuated by Margaret Bianchetta’s golden flute passages.

“Made My Peace” sounds like an outtake from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album or something. It’s got a cool arrangement, with back masking and all these little sonic buzzers and bells happening underneath the action.

Udell asks the question “Is it Worth It?” And before he answers it at the end of the album, he cleverly goes through a litany of questions directed at mankind’s inhumanity and lust for control. It’s an existential ride that features some sizzling guitar in the mid-section.

“Unexplored Expanses” goes back to his roots as an electronic adventurer. It’s a short interlude that blends ambience and a Can/Holger Czukay-type of unorthodoxy. The title song and answer to the previous track, “It’s Worth It” kind of sums up the album. It’s somewhat of a hopeful song, with some tasteful Robert Fripp/Steve Hackett-like sustained guitars. It’s an appropriate finale that really builds in a semi-symphonic, almost Baroque-infused manner.

David Udell is a talented and multi-faceted artist, firmly rooted in art and progressive rock, but with a strong melodic crossover appeal.