boffo's Full Review: Eye of the Hunter by Brendan Perry
Eye Of The Hunter is Brendan Perry's solo debut. Perry was one half of the Australian duo Dead Can Dance. On the album Perry moves away from Dead Can Dance's experiments with world music and medevial sounds and presents a more traditional if slightly gothic singer-songwriter effort.
The music consists mostly of a melancholy plucked acoustic guitar with some strings added for extra mood. A few songs also have bass and drums as well and the soundscape is completed with some atmospheric noises and flutes. Over this music Perry sings his meditations on life in his rich and beautiful baritone voice. His voice is one of my favorite elements of Dead Can Dance's music and it is equally moving on this album.
Sadly most of the actual songs are quite forgettable with a few exceptions such as Medusa with a beautiful string arrangement or The Captive Heart with slightly jazzy drumming and one of the albums best lyrics.
The lyrics is otherwise, at least to me, one of the albums bigger weaknesses. The words seem to be a mixture of new age and goth poetry slapped together to form some sad meditations on life. I don't feel that most of them feel as strong and honest as you would wish in this kind of mellow music where the words really stand out.
Mother mother
Can you tell me
where the fire goes
when the flames cease?
"from the ashes to the astral plain
Where the setting sun meets the sea, Brendan"
This is an example of one of the more new-ageish lyrics taken from the track Voyage Of Bran. While Dead Can Dance's lyrics had the same problems at least they worked better with the kind of music the group made.
Even though I have a problem with some of the lyrics and many of the songs are not that memorable I still feel this is an Ok debut from Brendan Perry as I always liked some of the more traditional guitar based songs he contributed to Dead Can Dance's albums. Therefore this album is recommended to those that like those aspects of Dead Can Dance's music or for those looking for a talented singer-songwriter and dosen't mind the new-age feel of some of the lyrics.
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