As any critic will tell you, there's a fine line between heady concept done right and overwrought self-indulgence. The former often blurs into the latter in the blink of an eye, and in music that's perhaps doubly true. New age guitarist Lawrence Blatt skirts that dangerous line between both on The Color of Sunshine, a high-minded offering drenched in ambient, acoustic warmth atop some vague scientific concepts. As is often the case, Blatt's original intent of naturalistic exploration seems lost behind Sunshine's golden hue, an instance in which the art overshadows the artist's own raison d’être.
With that said, Sunshine is alarmingly beautiful and technically proficient, perfect in the sense that most listeners will assume its contents are the result of effortless improvisation. Blatt deserves credit for remaining unobtrusive on the acoustic, which takes center stage in each and every track, but often fails to dominate the goings-on. Most of the time, it's a wise move – Sunshine is nothing if not aura-filled easy listening, ill-suited for one overwhelming instrument to drive everything along. As such, Blatt ensures every component gets along well with the other, from the gentle flutes of the title track to the muted vocals of "InFrared - The Abyss." Here the ability to fade away and not tamper with the foreground is the mark of a good musician, and by that standard, Blatt succeeds.
The problem, then, is the overwhelmingly extraneous nature of Sunshine's brain, an unnecessary component for this particular genre. Every song is chronologically placed and contained unto its own world, their formation mirroring the naturally-occurring color spectrum - or so proclaims Blatt's press release. While musicians are rightfully privy to their whims and desires when it comes to crafting a concept album, such specificity hardly seems necessary in Sunshine's case. For instance, is it really necessary to note that the mysterious, mythical vibe of "Jaune (Yellow)" is literally influenced by jaundice? The detail is off-putting, to the say the least, and adds nothing to the song's guitar-and-string splendor.
In the end, listeners must determine whether the plethora of background information is necessary to enjoy The Color of Sunshine. I have a nagging suspicion that one can enjoy the show without the added science lesson - or, for that matter, the wet blanket that is categorizing and demystifying Blatt's free hand at the acoustic. Such minutia drains the fun from Sunshine's fare and the magic from Blatt's talent, both of which are major reasons as to why the album succeeds.
Kevin Liedel, MuzikReviews.com Sr. Staff
June 22, 2009
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