What a year 2018 was for Myles Kennedy. He released a live album with Alter Bridge, a new studio album with Slash, and Year of the Tiger – his very first solo album. It’s been a long time coming, after 27 years as a recording artist, and 14 years of leading Alter Bridge.
There is nothing fluffy about this album. Indeed, it deals with a deeply personal subject: the death of Kennedy’s father when he was only four. He died in 1974, in the year of the tiger, after refusing medical help for appendicitis due to his Christian Science beliefs.
We are now approaching a small lifetime later, and the fact that this still hangs over Kennedy tells us that there are a lot of thoughts and feelings on this subject – unresolved and likely painful ones – to delve into and explore.
The solo project had some false starts, and the end result is very different from the album he started out making. He initially spent seven years (on and off) working on his own material before realising that it didn’t feel right. A nagging feeling emerged that he needed to address some personal stuff.
He tried writing a song about his father, but realised that he had too much to say. One song wasn’t enough. Everything was scrapped and he started afresh with a new plan. That was a bold move, but as soon as he understood the amount of things within him that he had to get out, Year of the Tiger started taking shape.
This is a raw album, a shockingly honest album, and a deeply personal one. It is quite likely the most difficult subject he could have chosen, but also exactly the album he had to make.
The circumstances around his father’s death contain events and topics that Kennedy always wanted to explore lyrically, but it takes some serious soul-searching and courage to do so. Only after a conversation with his mother, who gave the project her total blessing and encouraged him to go ahead with this as deeply as needed, was the decision made to proceed.
Given the whole background of the subject matter, it isn’t wrong to consider this a concept album of sorts. Most concept albums tell a story. This one does too, in a sense, but not in a classic storytelling way. We get the basic events. We also get a lot of thoughts and the entire spectrum of emotions around what happened, from sadness to anger and everything between. There is especially a lot of dealing with stuff in the aftermath.
The album dares to enter dark places, it dares to share to the point where the singer is totally naked with his pure emotions, and ultimately there may or may not be things to glean from the whole narrative.
The album’s unique subject matter was a topic in most album reviews when it was released, and frankly this intrigued me. I picked up the album for the subject matter alone. That was enough to get me interested, as I had a feeling this could be an album of significant substance. That definitely ended up being correct. Few albums have impacted me as greatly in recent years as this one.
The second thing that struck me were the musical arrangements. Myles is well known as a hard rock/metal vocalist, and he could well have chosen that genre to convey the lyrics and messages he has to offer. As the lyrics are somewhat naked, he opted for the music to be a bit more like that too.
Making the album acoustic-based (but not fully acoustic) was a very suitable choice. There is definitely a ‘rock’ vibe overall, but the songs have been given a lot of room for the melodies and lyrical delivery to be at the core of it all.
Note that “acoustic based” does not equal Kennedy on his own singing while bashing out chords on acoustic guitar. This is played by a band, with a lot of intricate arrangements all over the place. Some songs even utilise orchestral arrangements, or feature sections that veer off into prog territory – although those songs are not in the majority.
The opening title track sets the tone very nicely. Year of the Tiger is an immediate showcase for the acoustic nature of the album, alongside a percussive drumbeat and stand-up bass. Myles sings about moving on in this song, which implies something happened, but he insistently sings “In the year of the tiger I got my kin to save; And I’ll be damned to see them suffer one more day.” The video to that song sees Myles walking down a road, holding the hand of his own son, who can’t be much older than Myles were when he lost his own dad. That certainly makes you think. Very, very powerful.
The Great Beyond follows, and the contrast couldn’t be bigger. This track sports swirling orchestral arrangements which grow into an epic flair, which is no less dramatic than the subject matter. This song paints a picture of the night his father actually passed away.
There can’t have been many lyrics from 2018 that beats this one in terms of naked, raw emotion. It details the impact, the incomprehensiveness of it all, the bitterness, the lack of answers, and ultimately the tragedy that would live on through those left behind. The turmoil is well reflected in the musical accompaniment. This is a gigantic song on the album in every sense.
With the father now gone, Myles confronts the anger he feels towards the beliefs that more or less led to his dad’s demise in Blind Faith. The feeling that it was more important to his dad to be loyal to his religion over ever seeing his own son again is understandably very hard to come to terms with. This is touched on in several songs, but never more directly than here. “Fate can be blind but it cannot justify; The tragedy of a love’s demise we can’t replace” Kennedy sings in the chorus, and later “All I ask of you is you understand my anger once you’re gone.”
The song has a more naked arrangement as Kennedy sings alone with his acoustic guitar on this song. While he is known as a solid vocalist, this song is a solid showcase of his guitar playing as well. He slides, picks melodic patterns, and really does anything but just strum his way through the song. The playing is innovative, skilful, and emotive – just like his singing. The vocal delivery is nothing short of breathtaking. Kennedy is an amazingly emotional singer when the song calls for it, and especially on this album nobody should doubt the sincerity of his delivery. You know it comes from a genuine place.
Kennedy goes through various stages of aftermath and discovery in the songs to follow. Devil On the Wall is more bluesy in its approach, with a jaunty, country beat. Kennedy even adopts a southern drawl.
The melodic Ghost of Shangri-La describes well the feeling of constant reminders and how they make it hard to continue, even years later. Turning Stones starts in more muted fashion, but slowly builds as the voice prays for answers that are not forthcoming. A certain understanding is starting to creep in on Haunted By Design, but not necessarily a healthy or even correct one. Nobody deserves to be haunted by anything, but human emotions are a strange thing, and the song paints that stage very well.
The narrative reaches a turning point on Mother, which may be the most touching song on the album. It shows that you can find strength to go on in those who are still here.
Mother never bows to fate
Grieving for what can’t be changed
We discover in due time how much we’re meant to take
When all hope was left to die
Your love for me survived
Perhaps surprisingly this is not a ballad or even the most musically emotional song on the album – it has a decent pace, lots of high energy, and is more celebratory than anything else.
Things do however get more emotional on Nothing But A Name which is more brooding and bluesy. It all ultimately comes back to the same question: “Your conviction your belief; How could you choose that over me?; The broken-hearted left with nothing but a name.”
Love Can Only Heal is one of the strongest songs on the album. The ballad has some very quiet sections, but overall builds slowly and steadily. This is where Kennedy finally talks directly to his father from a place of love, rather than the array of emotions found earlier on the album. Things are still not necessarily fine, and the message not straightforward, but as he sings:
If only you could trade the dark for light it might reveal
That there’s a place inside
Don’t be afraid to feel
Cause love can only heal
Kennedy’s pained vocals on this track are extremely moving. The chorus also contains the most beautiful and emotional “la la la”-section you’ll ever have heard.
This brings us to the final songs on the album. How to close out something as intense as this? The answer is Songbird and One Fine Day – two songs with decidedly upbeat titles, and the music and message matches this nicely. They are both about finding hope in the darkness, and it is evident that making Year of the Tiger has had this effect for Kennedy. For many, listening to the album may hopefully provide something similar.
I have really enjoyed all the albums Myles Kennedy made with Slash in recent years, so I knew of him as a skilled and versatile vocalist that I have grown to like very much. I still never expected his solo offering to be as strong as this album turned out to be, but here we are.
This album has real substance, quality performances, and quite frankly is an amazing collection of songs. This one seriously deserves to be heard by many more people, but I’ll admit it might not be a prime candidate if you want an album to bring along to the beach on a sunny day.
Facebook Comments