WALLY: A very Weird Review

This is a particularly peculiar review of the Wally album. The bloke who wrote it seems to like the album well enough, but has totally missed the point on several salient points apertaining to the band and their career. For example, since when has Harrogate been in the United States?

Wally – Montpellier

Review by: Guillermo Urdapilleta

Year: 2010
Produced by: Wally
Label: Wally Music




Musicians:
Roy Webber: vocals and guitars
Frank Mizen: bass and pedal steel
Will Jackson: guitars and keyboards
Paul Middleton: steel guitar and bass
Pete Sage: electric violin and bass
Roger Narraway: drums and percussion
Nick Glennie-Smith: keyboards and vocals


Tracks:
1. Sailor (7:43)
2. Sister Moon (6:01)
3. Thrill Is Gone (6:02)
4. Surfing (7:17)
5. In The Night (6:06)
6. Human (6:31)
7. She Said (7:15)
8. Giving (8:24)

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Wally is a band from the United States who had released a couple of albums in the seventies. After a long gap, they came back with new material in 2009, and in 2010 released this album entitled “Montpellier”, which consists of eight songs that make a total time of 54 minutes. The songs duration range from 6 to 8 minutes each.

The album kicks off with “Sailor”, a track with a great atmosphere that let us imagine the trip of precisely, a sailor. The first introductory minute is interesting, with environmental landscape. Later the voice enters and creates with piano a delicate and ballad-like sound which later is progressing and creating a kind of soft neo-prog sound, very light, if you ask me. A couple of minutes later it changes and the rock element is much more evident here, with also an extra amount of energy and a more interesting sound.

“Sister Moon” starts again with the environment sound, like being in the ocean. Then just like in the previous track, a soft, charming and ballad-like song starts.. Later it progresses and adds new elements that give it the entrance to the progressive rock realm, to its lightest side, actually. The lyrics are cool and in moments easy to sing. After four minutes there is a good guitar riff which is greatly accompanied by the other instruments.

“Thrill’s Gone” has a very 80s sound, reminding me of some hard rock bands. The song is pretty catchy, with nice keyboards and a great implement of female vocals as back. A guitar riff comes later, but the rhythm and the structure are the same all the time. Nice if you want to move your body for some minutes. “Surfing” has a nice introductory minute with organ and soft vocals; later drums and a “tick-tock” sang appear and the song begin to build up a new structure. After two minutes it explodes and becomes rockier and more emotional due to the vocals, but also to the higher volume of the instruments. I cannot help but remembering Dire Straits here (and actually in previous tracks also), they have a very alike flavor. Later there is a brief but worth mentioning instrumental part where a delicious violin is implemented. Then the song returns to its original structure and finishes like that.

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