More info: http://www.johnorrfranklin.com/
Verdict: a good commercial pop rock album with progressive elements coming through in the guitar work.
John Orr Franklin is a singer, songwriter and guitarist hailing from Austin, Texas, USA. "Transformation" is a follow up to his debut album "Pathways". Both albums were written, engineered, and produced by John for release on his own label. The band on the album consists of Rob Palladino & Brandon Aly on drums, Josh Batschelet & Kris Mathesen on bass and Laurel Hostak adds vocals to the title track. "Pathways" didn't get too much publicity as John was keen to return to the studio to record this album.
At his website and in the promotion material, John describes his music as progressive rock as this is the area where most of this influences come from. Whilst I can hear those progressive influences coming through in places, I'm not sure that progressive in the main tag I'd attach to this. Anyway, let's run through the tracks and see what we end up with.
"For All The World To See" is a catchy Tom Petty style start to the album, whilst the following "Dance Till Three" slows things down slightly with some fluid guitar work. Parts of "Kiss the Sky" seem to have a Celtic hint to them, but if you're from America I guess Cajun or Country could equally well apply. "Disappear (Only One World)" is a good pop rock song that has a hint of Robert Cray about it. On "Flow" John shows his guitars skills on a Neil Schon type instrumental track. On the Alan Parsons sounding title track it is the Pink Floyd guitar parts that first make the progressive elements of John's work audible.
Robert Cray, maybe Eric Clapton, spring to mind when listening to the bluesy commercial rock of "The Dove". The title "Summer" perfectly fits the next retro sounding track as it lilts along. The instrumental "Chrysalis" gives John another chance to rock out a little more with some fine guitar work. These instrumentals break up the album nicely. Taken on a song by song basis the vocals are all more than acceptable, but my minor quibble is that it seems to me that the same style is utilised on every song, whereas some variety would have been a positive contribution. On the longest track on the album, "True 2 U", the progressive elements show up again. About a third of the way through the guitars step up and rock out in a Molly Hatchet meets Led Zeppelin style. "This Day" is a gentle song to fade out the album is a style similar to latter day Pink Floyd.
This is a good commercial pop rock album with progressive elements coming through in the guitar work. I'll have the admit that listening to the instrumentals I would have like to have heard some of the other tracks 'rock out' a little more. Having, said that John and his music give out a positive vibe and making this album a joy to listen to.
