James Iha is back with his 2nd solo album ‘Look To The Sky’. The former Smashing Pumpkins & Perfect Circle guitarist offers us an album brimming with layer upon layer of melodies, psychedelica, and a certain pop sassiness. It’s certainly a much more confident and accomplished sounding album than Iha’s 1998 debut solo album ‘Let It Come Down’, but…
Opening tracks ’Make Believe’ & ’To Who Knows Where’ are simply beautiful, although inevitably there is a slight hint of Smashing Pumpkins in the air – think of the mellower offerings on ’Mellon Collie…’ and you’ll soon know what I mean.
Midway through the album it becomes clear that it’s pretty a one dimensional affair. While the songs aren’t bad, they just don’t really go anywhere and consequently I found it a struggle to keep my attention on listening intently.
There are occasional moments where the album suddenly goes off on a tangent, such as the Bowie inspired ’Appetite’ – a piano driven, dark & sultry track that is one of the standout songs for me. However, overall I can’t help but feel that while I do prefer this album to Iha’s debut offering, there simply isn’t enough on here that really grabs me.
There’s no doubting Iha’s musical ability, or that of the many collaborators that feature on this album. His voice – never really considered his strong point – is certainly not up to the standard of his often sublime guitar talents. The trouble is that despite being a talented guitarist, and despite having many of his musical chums on board to help, the final product is an album that reaches for and sometimes touches on beauty, but falls into an abyss of mediocrity.
I want to rename this album ‘Look To The Sky In Despair’ because I know that Iha is capable of so much more.
I’m going now, and I’m going to play ‘Siamese Dream’ loudly.