Reviewed by Tony Cummings

A definite improvement on his debut album but still not the killer many of his followers were hoping for. Paul's great strength is he crafts songs that say more in a stanza than most songsmiths can manage in an album. Paul's guitar playing is superb, though his voice is, shall we say, minimalist. But what 'Fallen People On A Fallen Planet' lacks most is production coherence. This can often happen with artist-pro­duced albums Too often with such albums the track­ing ends up being jamming along with what's already on the tape with hopefully some empathy of the exist­ing groove but with no clear sense of arrangement. Paul has long been a fan of reggae and R&B (he once produced an album for reggae gospel's Channel Of Praise, now the Channels) And his taste for skanking rhythms shows through here, keyboards man Duke Kerr adding some tasty touches. Tasty too is the BVs of Sonya Grant and the blow-the-back-off sax of Michael Haughton. But though tight enough the arrangements never bring out melodies and one or two of Paul's high, Larry Norman-tinged vocals sound dis­tinctly undermixed to my ears. The songs are excel­lent, "The English Way", "That's Not What Bothrs Me" and the bitter sweet "She Laughs In Her Dreams" should get to a big audience if there's any justice. But until Paul puts himself into the hands of a record pro­ducer who can bring out those communication skills so evident in live gig situations, his albums will continue to be OK rather than yeessss!

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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