Steven Rowe - Parallel
2002/ 31:35 Minutes / 12 Tracks/ Studio
Release Date: May 30 2002 - Multidex Music
Produced by: Steven Rowe
Website: Steven Rowe
Website: www.mp3.com/stevenrowe

Reviewed by Matt Rowe on June 3, 2002

Like a melancholic fog that descends upon the world, seemingly covering everything in sight until there is nothing to see but perhaps the faintest glimmer of a light in the distance. Like moisture that clings to your face and your clothes, permeating until it's actually in you, that walk through the fog, like our walk though life, becomes a sort of reality all by itself. Steven Rowe's "Parallel" is that walk.

Recently released, "Parallel" is a conceptualized look into a heart that has been stripped bare of its veneer. A series of tales and emotive music that echoes the human spirit as it wanders through that fog of untold sadness, fed by the dampness of experience, coalesced by the inability to hold all the cards.

There are songs on this CD that stir up the ghosts. "Daddy", a song of loss that sticks with you long after it has ended. For me, "Daddy" is the best song on the disc. Minimal and haunting keyboard moves the song through the ether of fear and pain, pushing it to levels of awe and acceptance. "Parallel" shares that as well. With "Parallel" there are questions. In fact, the entire album asks questions with the bitter acceptance that the answers may never quite make their way to the surface.

The musical pieces are well done. They zip in and out of the CD as interludes; as if they were periods of introspection. And they are. The moments where you are alone, feeling the weight of mistakes and their ripples as they gently push you ever deeper.

Rounding out the CD are 10 more songs, questions all the more shocking for their starkness. The wound laid open, unable to heal for fear of the scar. As a matter of fact, that most accurately describes the CD, a series of open wounds. The daze that surrounds these elegant and evocative tunes stay with my soul. They always may.

The acceptance of "Nobody Comes" gives an airy feel to what's on the way. Despite the song's title, you can't help but get the feeling that 'at the bridge', a new life may be found. I feel as if it has already happened.

The CD, distributed by MP3.com, is available for purchase there. I cannot overemphasize the excellent buy that this CD represents. It gives us a look into the soul of life and the heart of man.

I am haunted.

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