Bloom

This is a fantastic album all-around. Johnson demonstrates his rock guitar prowess on some of the earlier tracks and then explores many styles (ambient, jazzy, even Middle Eastern) on later tracks. It's rich with mood and atmosphere and yet still has plenty of punch; listen to the first five songs and you'll know exactly what I mean. And yet, the meditative mode of later songs gives the mind and heart much to chew on, and has left me with good memories. It's one of my favorites of his.The strange thing is that this album doesn't seem to pop up on lists of great Eric Johnson albums, thus my title here. I think many listeners will be pleasantly surprised. This showcases not just a great guitarist but a great artist at work; plenty of rock and plenty of moods to go around. And yeah, the guy can play :)

This is an impressive effort. This CD has been played fairly constantly in my car for the past 3 weeks. What impresses me is that I consistently find new bits that stand out depending on my mood. There are some great grooves, brilliant fills, and rocking riffs in classic Eric Johnson style in the first movement, 'Prelude'. The opener 'Bloom' and 'Good To Me' are probably the highlights there. Mr. Johnson then turns it down a bit during 'Courante', the second movement.'Sad Legacy' and 'From My Heart' are both great introspective songs. 'Sad Legacy' builds a sense of urgency and 'From My Heart' has a mellower, R&B feel and nice jazzy runs. These two are probably my favorites off the album.The last movement, 'Allemande' starts off with a nice old-school style jazzy number, 'Hesistant'. 'Magnetized' gets things rocking again, before a very good atmospheric classical guitar piece, 'Ciel' ends the ride.Eric plays an wide variety of styles on this release and manages to keep it all together as one cohesive piece, with one small exception. Tribute to Jerry Reed, while a nice bit of picking doesn't fit on this CD for me, especially after the sitar on 'Cruise The Nile'.I'd recommend this CD to anyone who enjoyed Ah Via Musicom or Venus Isle. Or, if you aren't familiar with Eric johnson already, then do yourself a favor and pick up a CD. This one is as good as any of his studio albums to start off with.

EJ remains, in my opinion, one of the two guitarists by whom others should be measured (Steve Morse being the other). This is owing to his sheer technical ability (which many guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and others possess) coupled with a feel, tone and general musicality which most of the other virtuosos lack. As always, his playing on this CD is incredible. The CD is recorded well and sounds great. If there is one knock, however, it is that EJ is a master of so many styles of guitar playing, that at times the CD feels disjointed (probably why he breaks it down into three segments). He begins with a very EJ-like boogie, then rolls into the more Satriani-esque, followed shortly by what I think is a great, uptempo cover of Dylan's My Back Pages. But later, EJ hits us with some Grand Ole Opry-like country, neoclassical, and even Pat Metheny-like jazz. Don't get me wrong, EJ gets it right and then some every step of the way, it is just that when listed to from start to finish, as a whole, the CD does not flow as well as say Venus Isle.

Let me first say that I've been a huge fan of Eric Johnson for years and even though I'm primarily a classical and jazz listener, I still have found time to return to Eric's music off and on through the years. So in doing this, I have been keeping in touch with his career. "Bloom," released in 2005, was a long-time coming as fans had to wait five years before it was released. The previous recording was 2000's "Alien Love Child: Live And Beyond," which found Johnson in a different setting and in a bluesy mood throughout the set. "Bloom" marks a departure for Johnson in many ways, which I hope to detail in the next couple of paragraphs.My first initial listen to "Bloom" was pretty well-received. I was just excited to be holding a new recording from Johnson in my hands after such a long wait. I breezed through one song after another and it sounded quite good. One thing that did put me off was Eric's guitar tones. It sounded almost as if he had abandoned all of the signature sounds that made him famous. I didn't hear that violin-like tone that I heard in the previous recordings and his rhythm tone seemed lacking that sparkling resonance from "Venus Isle." Could my ears be deceiving me? No, I went back to listen to the album again and none of them are there. There's nothing worse than hearing somebody so famous for their tone use other methods to produce that tone. Johnson claims nothing has changed but for a pedal or two, but I disagree. There's something different and I think it has to do with his signal processing. The attack of the strings just doesn't sound right to me. The after effect when he plucks the strings in his distortion tone has changed and not for the better. Some of you might say why am I making such a big fuss over his sound? The reason I am is I believe that his tone is as crucial to Johnson as the actual notes he's playing.If the change of tone wasn't enough, the songs certainly won't help pull Johnson out of this hole. "Bloom" has some of the weakest songs to date. I don't think there was anything remotely memorable or interesting on this entire album. "Your Sweet Eyes" almost returns us to the sound of "Venus Isle," but ultimately it, too, was a letdown. Songs like "Columbia," "12 to 12 Vibe," "Sea Secret," "Cruise the Nile," "Bloom," and "Summer Jam" seem like filler to me. Nothing remotely interesting about these songs other than they try to capture some different facets to Johnson's musical personality, but I think they fail, because, again, the tone isn't particularly interesting. People complained that "Venus Isle" sounded too heavily processed, but I think they need to listen to "Bloom" again, because the actual sound of this record is horrible. Johnson said he was going for a "live" kind of feel for this recording, but I just don't hear it. I hear a guitarist who is trying to get his head above the water. Something happened between the time of "Alien Love Child" and "Bloom" and I think whatever it was it crippled this once virtuoso. The guy has lost his technique and throughout the album relies on the same old stock guitar licks that he's used a million times before. What I enjoyed about "Ah Via Musicom" and "Venus Isle" was their experimental edge. Johnson continued to find new techniques to employ on the guitar while also trying to push himself into a new artistic direction. Most of the songs on "Bloom" sounds like he's tired and has run out of steam. Perhaps he has.The reality of this once amazing player is he has listened to what other people have said too much instead of focusing on his own musicianship. To reiterate this point, go watch some recent interviews with him and he'll quickly point that he's tried to listen to what people have said to him, which many of them have told him he needs to learn to relax and loosen up. I'm sorry he didn't become a virtuoso guitarist by listening to what people have told him. If he did, then he probably would have taken the jazz fusion gig with Stanley Clarke in the '80s. No, he has always done what HE wanted, not what other's have wanted him to do. Why all of sudden is he going to start listening to what other's tell him? He has become a walking contradiction."Bloom" is where I have to draw the line and say that every musician makes a few great albums in their careers, unfortunately, for Johnson, those days are long behind him now.