Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Creativity has no expiry date, there are no rules which dictate an age barrier to the artistic and productive flow and yet quite often we find ourselves extolling the virtues of the young and never giving credit to those whose time on Earth has been filled with the pursuit of all that is inventive and original. It sometimes must feel that the film Logan’s Run was just a radical idea taken up and put in place, that the philosophy detailed is Coming Closer To The Day when we disavow anything that has been fashioned by anybody older than a certain age.
With age comes experience, with experience comes the benefit of having lived through so much that the creative urge just becomes a flow of ideas, cascading through the countryside of individualism and out into the wider sea of collective endeavour; it is with age that we may see that day in the distance but that we also know it is not up to fickle finger of rampant consumerism and fashion to dictate what is good, nor what passes for art, but our own enjoyment, and one that the majesty that sits at the very core of Robin Trower has always been keen to exemplify and explore.
From the outset, Coming Closer To The Day is a twist of the cards played out in favour of the listener, the fan will always expect a polished performance from someone with the prowess that has been gifted and laboured intently for with intensity, and yet Robin Trower goes beyond that, he conquers with will but with grace pouring out of every cell, the open face of industry playing through a wealth of a life that has been extraordinary, and yet which in the scheme of modern society, has been humble and dedicated.
It in the tracks Truth Or Lies, Tide of Confusion, Little Girl Blue, Someone Of Great Renown and Take Me With You that this contribution to art, as well as to the observation of life, is precise and beautiful. You would expect nothing less from someone with so much emotion in his art, so much that he has witnessed, and yet it still comes a gracious realisation of appreciation to the listener that the music is of such demanding, exquisite quality.
Time is a commodity not to take for granted, it is too precious to waste, we all see that day on the horizon and perhaps we dismiss it to our peril; yet an hour or two spent in the company of Robin Trower is a reminder that the day is meant to include beauty; one that is forever Coming Closer To The Day.
Robin Trower releases Coming Closer To The Day on March 22nd via Provogue/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. Hall