The Prog Collective - 2022 - Seeking Peace

(44:46; Purple Pyramid)

Over the years Billy Sherwood has enjoyed setting up multiple projects, often to record new versions of well-known songs, but a few years back he started Prog Collective, and this is fifth album under that banner, and the first to feature all-new material since 2013’s ‘Epilogue’ . While Billy provides bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals and drums, he also has one or two guests involved as well. Ready? Jordan Rudess, Sonja Kristina, Chester Thompson, James LaBrie, Chad Wackerman, Patrick Moraz, Roine Stolt, Marco Minnemann, Steve Stevens, Steve Morse, David Sancious, Jon Davison, Steve Hillage, Virgil Donati, Graham Bonnet, L Shankar, Todd Sucherman, Geoff Downes, and Frank DiMino. A few of these do play on two tracks, but for the most part these guests only plan on one, so it is not as if we have Steve Hillage displaying his wonderful guitar throughout, and those expecting a major collaboration between Billy and his Yes-colleague Jon will also only find one song on the album.

But, and it is a big “but”, this has way more continuity than one often gets from this type of release. I have often not enjoyed the albums Billy has been involved with in the past, but this is in a totally different league. His Chris Squire-style bass underpins everything, melodic and chunky, while the songs are thoughtful and packed full of harmonies. He has brought in musicians who are all incredibly well-known, but they have all kept their egos in track and the result is something which is heavily commercial, yet still interesting while being firmly commercial and quite middle of the road in progressive terms. It may not be pushing any boundaries, but the result is a very pleasant crossover release which does not suffer from being a project. Nothing really stands out, but it is a nice listen all the same.

Kev Rowland, July 2023

Links:
http://cleorecs.com/