Remember

Remember is a spectacular achievement in the genre of 'flower child' music if you can call it that (no doubt they are big around the laid back college campus). It balances out the lighter side with the darker using fantastic often ethnic instrumentation (including great guitarwork, cultured vocal stylings with Arabian/Indian inflections, and African percussion) and a primitive writing style that seems to capture the spirit of olden tribalistic times with an equal balance of religion, delirium, confusion, and loss. Songs like "Faith I Do Believe" and "Heaven" follow the religious aspects and I often prefer the music to the words, but the tales of overwhelming confusion seem to outweigh these reflecting scattered imagery and being mesmerized by it ( such as my favorite track "Voodoo" in which he describes a variety of fragmented things, but "Baby Will Raam", "Infinite Space", "Circle Of Rememberance", and others are just as worthy).

There are darker parts to the album as well and I think these are some of the best tracks.."Bullets In The Fire" is beautiful and keeps re-occuring in my head, a morose tale of self-doubt/redemption/rising from a depressing incident. He really packs emotion when he foretells that his struggle or whathaveyou will get lost in history just like everything: "bullets in the fire, i believe I lost my head/ And will you ever know what was sent before it went down?". "Sister Contine", "River In A Cage", "Scattered" and "Dangle" are similar in their shadowed or even cathartic resonance.

The overal effect is varied exploration and trawl through an ancient bare boned world, reminds me a tad of Tom Waits' masterpeice Bone Machine. I think it's named Remember for a reason, so that we don't forget the past and all its lost treasures.