You have heard of the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities, well N.O.T.E definitely experiences the best of times and the worst of times. Well maybe worst is a little too strong, but we have a bi-polar release here if ever there was one.
n.o.t.e, yep that's what he calls himself, claims that he wasn't born on this planet, and although it's a nice media pitch, the songs "Fall To Earth", "Atlantis", and "Beyond Tomorrow" have a nice mystic, other-world feel. "Look on the Bright Side" and "Our Love" are radio-friendly songs that are very pleasant but with not much going on. The same can not be said for "All You've Got", which has a solid groove, yet excellent fills and solos.
Fall To Earth is a mellow, art-rock tinged, interesting CD, with good background passages, that keep the music fresh and flowing. The bass and keyboards are excellent, considering that n.o.t.e. is first a guitarist. So everything sounds good, where is this bad? Well, two things will keep you from spinning this CD often. First, the production and mixing quality is so amateur that you can not listen to this without thinking "home studio". Second, the drum programming kills all song flow and makes you wonder what this creative songwriter could do with a live drummer.
Still, N.O.T.E. is recommended to anyone that likes mellow, songwriter based rock that doesn't really fit in the standard mold. Guy Manning and Fritz Doddy are the two closest musically, if not lyrically. This is a CD based on talent, but talent that needs to stretch it's wings outside of a spare-bedroom recording studio and drum-in-a-box.
Track Listing
1. Look On The Bright Side
2. Fall To Earth
3. Android
4. On Our Way To Hell
5. Beyond Tomorrow
6. Sweet Sarah
7. Our Love
8. All You've Got
9. Atlantis
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
