Solar - Dark Places (2003)

We all know by now that Rob Sowden is a great singer en a very good performer. We also have seen him play the guitar every once in a while during an Arena-gig. He now also has a solo album with his band Solar, Dark Places.

Let’s start with some facts about Solar and the album: Rob is the band's singer and guitarist. The other members are Simon Bell on drums, Lawrence Jarvis on Bass and Raff on guitar. There are also many additional guest contributions. The band was formed in the year 2000. All songs are written by Rob and arranged by the band. The album is produced by John Mitchell.

1. Cheap Thrill
2. Psycho
3. Atrophy
4. In A Dark Place
5. Caving In
6. Mother Of Mother
7. She Knows
8. Odyssey (In 'A' Major)
9. Untouchable
10. Arizona Dream (Letter To Valou)
11. Twice As Bright As The Sun

Now let’s talk music! Just like John Mitchell's The Urbane, Solar is very much a contemporary pop-rock, "indie" sounding solo outing.

The album start with three songs, Cheap Thrill, Psycho and Atrophy that start pretty quiet with nice guitar sounds and quiet drums. The quiet beginning is followed by not so quiet guitars and more powerful singing. Of the three songs I personally like Psycho best because of a returning guitar riff that gives the song a bit of a strange, out-of-this-world atmosphere. It reminds me of an older kind of rock music, which I like a lot.

In A Dark Place is a kind of standard rock song with loads of powerful guitars and drums. From this song comes the phrase Dark Places which is the title of the album. The next song, Caving In, is a bit slower and again quit quiet. I don’t particularly like the ‘la, la, la’-bit, but the saxophone-solo is really beautiful and I also like the vocals very much.

Mother Of Mother start really beautiful with lovely vocals and sort of hypnotising sounds. At the end powerful guitars come in and I expected a wailing guitar solo. Unfortunately it stays with just chords and no melody. Which is less of an ending than this beginning deserved.

The next songs are She Knows and Odyssey (In ‘A’ Major). Good lyrics, good vocals, nice songs! Odyssey does end with the kind of guitar solo that I also expected in Mother Of Mother.

The first half of Untouchable is just nice guitars and echo’s. Then vocals come in and a minute later the drums. It’s a very special song, which you have to listen to a few times to get used to, but then you will appreciate it! This is also true for the next song Arizona Dream (Letter To Valou), which has by the way really touching lyrics. In the background you hear all kinds of sounds, like it is recorded in a train terminal or some other crowded place.

The last song Twice As Bright As The Sun, varies in sounds and atmosphere and has influences from Led Zeppelin's No Quarter (and Rob likes both band and song!). It’s the most "proggy" and a worthy ending of this album.

In short I think this is a nice album. It's both rocky and atmospheric and Rob's vocals sound great and warm. Unfortunately , especially in the first half, sometimes the songs sound a bit too much of the same. But especially the last songs show that the band has a lot of potential so I’m looking forward to hearing more of them!

By: Mijke Campschroer