Earl Slick Zig Zag
Released: December 9, 2003 Origination Year: 2003 Time: 48:27 Tracks: 10 Produced by: Mark Plati Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: None Website: www.earlslick.com

Zig Zag, Earl Slick's first solo album in 12 years, is an album that was two years in the making. And what a welcome return it is.

Burnt out spiritually and creatively from years of touring and recording, Earl retired not only from the music business but also from guitar playing itself in the early 90s. As fate would have it he would be employed once again by David Bowie for the first time in 17 years in the summer of 2000. Those recent tours and subsequent recordings led to the beginning of Earl's metamorphosis into a modern, cutting edge guitar hero.

No longer satisfied with the blues/ rock direction that had served him so well in the past, Earl was looking for new ways to 'paint a picture' with his guitar. Helping to expand his sonic palette is fellow Bowie cohort Mark Plati who was enlisted to produce the album as well as handling bass duties.

The fruits of their labour are evident from the very first track, the awesome "Dancing With Eleanor". The strong chugging rhythms and eerie synthesizers of the song provide a propulsive backdrop for Slick to display his newfound melodic sensibilities. "Believe" is, arguably, the best Cure song in years only it is not really a Cure song. Robert Smith makes the first of many guest vocal appearances on the album and any notions that this is some attempt to cash in on the Santana formula (legendary axe man teams with equally popular singer) are quickly disposed of. Slick's beautiful slide guitars provide a lush counterpoint to Smith's moody vocal delivery. Is this really the same musician from Young Americans? Great stuff. "Isn't It Evening (The Revolutionary)" features David Bowie taking the lead and it makes one wish that he had collaborated with Slick on his recent album Reality for it is simply one of the finest songs you will hear this year. This track also makes light of the fact that all of the guest vocalists are not merely showing up to the studio and nonchalantly belting out a few lines but that they have truly worked on co-writing their respective songs and it makes all the difference in the world.

There is not a weak song on the album. Space Hog's Royston Langdon appears on the casual, yet thoroughly rocking, title track and The Motel's Martha Davis re-emerges for the Blondie-ish "St. Mark's Place". Def Leppard's Joe Elliott steps up to the plate for the hard driving and oddly titled (since it is very much a full-blown rocker) "Psycho Twang". The song opens with Earl's command to "roll the tape, Petey"; an inside joke, as the album was recorded on a hard drive not a tape machine. Newcomer Summer Rose makes a strong impression on her track "Crunched"; I'm sure we will be hearing more from her in the near future. The rocking instrumentals "1735" and "Pike St." show a bit of Earl's prog-rock side with their exotic melodies and dramatic mood shifts. As the album begins instrumentally, so it ends with the soulful "The Cat". Another high point of the album, "The Cat" is a mournful tune that sees its melody ebb and flow before ending in a wash of military drums and ambient noises.

Zig Zag is a success on many levels; it is the work of an artist, an instrumentalist no less, reinventing himself in terms of the songs he writes, the way those songs sound and the way in which he expresses these ideas on his instrument. Earl Slick has not only made the best guitar-based album of the year but one of the best rock albums of the year.. period.

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