‘Beatitude’ is the first solo CD from California based guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Brnabic. There are sixteen instrumental tracks on the album, incorporating a range of styles, from jazz to metal to prog. rock. Eddie states in the sleeve notes to the album that “There are no words or vocals throughout, one because I’m not a very good singer and two, because there’s nothing I can say that isn’t being expressed IN THE MUSIC.”
This is where I have a fundamental problem with the album, as I primarily focus upon what the lyrics say. Yes the music here is expressive and sometimes beautiful, but it doesn’t say anything to me about what the composer feels, or even why the tracks have been given their respective titles. What I get from this is a number of guitar based tracks that are of varying length and quality. When they are good, they can be very good, but overall, a listener could pop out for a bite to eat and then return not feeling that they’ve missed too much.
The opening track ‘Flood’ is guitar based with some spacey noises and what appears to be a lot of use of a wah wah pedal. It sounds a little like The Doors circa ‘Morrison Hotel’ which certainly isn’t a bad thing.
‘Tripping Through Time’ is guitar and organ based and has some thunderous prog. riffs, but at ten and a half minutes long does tend to overstay its welcome. A bit like The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray’ it is a track that would only be played occasionally, if only to find out what it sounds like all the way through.
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As I said, when Eddie Brnabic is good, he can be very good, such as on ‘Essentia’ which has a Southern blues rock style, and a track that I felt at just over a minute long was actually too short.
Tracks where Eddie’s guitar work is complemented by organ also work better for me, such as ‘Most High’ which was a great relaxing track, and also ‘Smaze’ with some excellent acoustic guitar work, but ultimately for me, the lack of any coherence due to the absence of lyrics renders this a bit of a drag at times.
There are probably plenty of people who will love this and rave about it, but try though I might, I'm not going to end up being one of them.
Eddie Brnabic on MySpace
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