“Speaking To Stones” is a band from the States and is composed of Tony Vinci (guitars, bass, keys, drum programming on many tracks), David Callari (bass, vocals, drum programming), Rich Dellapietra (keys on three of the tracks) and Richard Fink IV (lead and harmony vocals). The album took about two years to be recorded and all of them have put their own touch to different songs.
I will have to be honest when I say it took me more than once or twice to really get into the CD. I can’t explain why exactly I didn’t like it much at the beginning, because I quite enjoyed the melodies, the vocals, the arrangements at straight, etc.
So it’s difficult to say… Perhaps the little detail that I found “irritating” sometimes is that there are “too many” different music styles in one same track ??!!! You’ll certainly recognize “Dream Theater” and “Rush” influences mixed with “Sevendust”, “Soundgarden”, I’d even go to say “Tool” ????? You’ve got progressive mixed with more modern music. Of course, I guess it was intentional and it can be very good too as it reaches many people and many different tastes at the same time but sometimes, I felt like it varies “too often” and “too fast” so it has a weird effect on the songs.
The mix of all those music styles together sounded a bit odd to me sometimes. I’ve got nothing against mixing music styles in a CD…in fact, I love that ! It just depends on WHICH styles. In this case, I like them better “separated”, not together. Please, hope you’ll understand what I mean. I’m not talking bad about the CD cause it’s not bad AT ALL !!! It’s only a little detail I wanted to mention and it doesn’t affect the “quality” of the CD AT ALL NEITHER.
But I must admit that even with that, once again, musical arrangements are brilliant. The singer adapts himself perfectly to the style he’s singing and has no problems switching from one to an other, which must be quite difficult. So hats off !!!
I like ALL the progressive parts, what I don’t enjoy as much, it’s when it suddenly switches to a much stronger musical style. (Maybe it’s just that I’m not used to that, too). For the rest, I ABSOLUTELY can’t complain, I think they’ve done a great job.
Basically, the “Speaking To Stones” album is not 100% my kind, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not good ! The guys play extremely well, the singer has great vocals, melodies are beautiful. They made it in an original way. The good side of this album is that it can reach many different music tastes. All in all, it’s weird to say, but the reason I didn’t get into the CD personally (at the beginning) is also what could make its strength to the others. So I would recommend it as it’s different than many other progressive albums ! Go for it !
If ever you don’t enjoy it at first, please be patient. It’s the kind of album you LEARN to appreciate. I tell you: more you’ll play it, better you’ll enjoy it. So take the time to dig it because it’s worth it ! You’ll end up finding it really addictive, I promise you that !!! :-)
Favourite tracks:
- “My Favourite Sin” – it has fantastic keys, guits. and vocals. I love everything here.
- “Close to the Sky” – notice the beautiful acoustic guitars at the end of the song !
- “Shallow” – musically, it’s totally brilliant.
- “Nothing” – I liked all aspects of it.
This CD is better when you listen to it quite loud and with headphones ! ;-)
Reviewed by Vikie Martel on May 11th, 2008
