One Spark is set to release on the 23rd of August as the debut solo album from Gabe Dixon. Somewhat prolific in his career, he formed The Gabe Dixon Band, a quartet at the time, from Miami, in 1998 and has since went on to play for some time with Paul McCarneys band. In late 2010 he was then drafted to play with Supertramp, the British rock band who formed at the end of the 60s.

In producing this solo debut Gabe recruited several credible artists, writers and producers to collaborate with him including songwriter Tia Sillers, country/bluegrass icon Alison Krauss for ‘Even The Rain’ and Grammy Award winner Dan Wilson on “My Favorite”. An impressive entourage and degree of experience indeed, one which would theoretically suggest this debut solo album would reflect such experience. But this is not the case.

‘One Spark’ is Gabe’s attempt at mature piano-pop, a genre populated with heavy-weight contenders like Elton John, The Beautiful South and Coldplay. Unlike anything from these heavy-weights, this record is pungent with teenage angst spilling into unbridled Cliché comprised almost entirely of one dimensional love songs causing each track flow into each other, giving the definition between tracks eminence only by a chintzy venture into reggae, clearly influenced by Sting and The Police, with ‘Running On Fumes’.

One Spark has been co-written with former members of Deacon Blue and Snow Patrol. The influence from which is palpable. The mono-tempo throughout and choruses long-drawn on holding the last note feel both outdated and exasperating.

The album opens, putting it’s best foot forward with “Strike”. The song sets the lyrical trend for the rest of the album where Gabe sings about “someone else”, each track throughout the record is about “you” and they all appear to say the same thing; “poor me, I love you”, but regardless of this solo dimensional rhetoric, it does slowly build up a picture of what Gabe Dixon himself is like.

Second song on the record ‘Even The Rain’ draws our expectations skyward towards a bluegrass vista being advertised as the duet with Alison Krauss. However, the song is more reminiscent of the unintelligible banality of hackneyed writing that fills love letters from teenagers; “even the rain is falling for you” …yes, yes and even the sun shines out of your ass, cringe!

Redemption to a small degree is made on the final track ‘Losing You’, redemption not because the album is coming to a close but Gabe extends to the listener some deserved versatility. ‘Losing You’ breaks the mold of the album with some up-tempo electric guitar, more prominent drumming and cartoon spaceship sound effects, that’s right, spaceship sound effects after the second chorus.

Musicianship is fair and mature but nothing especially challenging or original but some pleasant elements including a perky banjo walk throughout ‘I Can See You Shine’ that eventually becomes forgotten and suppressed by the lyrics.

Unimpressive throughout and completely lacks originality, possibly the result of the wide variety and amount of collaborators. Masses of collaboration often tend to draw music away from an edge towards the ‘middle-of-the-road’, hence, the music is left with elements of folk and pop, but not enough of either to be one or the other.

Band Gabe Dixon
Info: Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Info: One Spark
Style: Piano Rock
Years: 2011
Info: MP3 VBR V0 (Scene)
Info: 80,5 Mb

One Spark Tracklist:

01. Strike (3:41)
02. Even The Rain (With Alison Krauss) (4:23)
03. My Favorite (4:06)
04. On A Day Just Like Today (4:08)
05. Burn For You (With Madi Diaz) (3:00)
06. Release Me (3:56)
07. Running On Fumes (3:23)
08. Holiday (4:15)
09. I Can See You Shine (With James Walsh) (4:01)
10. Losing You (3:44)
11. Perpetual Motion (3:10)
12. Lucky To Be Lost (3:37)

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