plorentz's Full Review: In the House of Stone & Light by Martin Page
There are some artists who get inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame twice. Hey, as a member of both the Yardbirds and Cream, along with his work as a solo artist, Clapton's in there three times. But singer-songwriter Martin Page has acheived an altogether different distinction. He's a one hit wonder... twice over. See, in the early 80s, this fetching Brit with a pronounced chin and a flare for vocal drama was the lead singer of a synthesizer pop group called Q-Feel who scored a respectable dance hit with a song called "Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Bebop)" - now a staple of better new wave compilations - which belatedly hit the pop charts when it was featured prominently in the movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (starring teenagers Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt, along with a runty Shannon Doherty as Sarah Jessica's boyfriend's pesky little sister).
Having failed to sufficiently follow up on that hit, Q-Feel quickly went the way of Cop Rock, and that might have been the end of it. Martin Page didn't go away quietly though, and in the years immediately following his brush with frontman fame, Page distinguished himself as a hitwriter-for-hire giving acts like Starship ("We Built This City", "It's Not Enough"), Go West ("Faithful", "King of Wishful Thinking"), and Heart ("These Dreams") some of their biggest and most critically maligned hits of their careers while also building an impressive network of musical pals. But it would be a full decade following the dissolution of Q-Feel before Martin Page, with assistance from folks like Phil Collins, Robbie Robertson, and members of The Blue Nile and (snicker) Wang Chung, made his recorded debut as a solo artist with the album In the House of Stone and Light, the title track of which, distinguished by its catchy tribal-chant chorus and the rainforest grandeur of its arrangement - imagine the score of Survivor, if, instead of a trashy reality competition, it was actually an earnest family drama - became a fixture of adult contemporary radio playlists in the summer of '94, thus establishing Page as a one-hit-wonder. Again. (Page waited more than a decade to put out a sophomore solo disc.)
Credit where it's due, the album's follow-up single - a (two minutes too) long and winding, calypso-flavored ballad called "Keeper of the Flame" - made a respectable showing on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and even briefly nicked the Hot 100 in early '95, but it never became a playlist perennial like its predecessor. What both of the singles, and indeed, all of the other songs on the record, have in common is a low-key warmth and a vibe of well-traveled, however vague, spirituality that calls to mind Sting in one of his more subdued moments, with all the overwrought 80s-style social consciousness that comparison would imply. Nothing gets too slow or too fast, and everything feels profoundish.
"Shape The Invisible" couches its anti-war sentiments in a sweeping soundscape reminiscent of latter Simple Minds and important-sounding but ultimately confounding turns of philosophical phrase. "In My Room" is a story of domestic abuse as seen through the eyes of a battered woman's son, but the boy's vows for revenge are undermined by a smooth jazz production so stylishly mellow, you'd think the boy was protecting his mother from a romantic, candle-lit dinner. Then again, Page is best at his most mellow, and his most lovey-dovey, as on the nostalgic "Put On Your Red Dress", or "I Was Made For You", where he proclaims his devotion in a series of earnestly delivered rhetorical questions - what are these arms for? - as tribal drums rumble stirringly in the distance.
But then, he very nearly (and very clumsily) re-writes Peter Gabriel's "Digging in the Dirt" with the song "Monkey in My Dreams" (co-written with his frequent collaborator, lyricist Bernie Taupin), from the snaky, earthy electro-funk groove of the verses to the shouted confrontations in the chorus. The intent is (I think) "sexy". The result is (I'm sure) "silly". All told, In the House of Stone and Light mostly succeeds at sounding respectable and pretty without being terribly memorable. Aside from the title track, there's nothing here so compelling that I'd want to pay full price for the CD. Then again, if you happen to find it in a used bin for a couple of bucks, it makes for a pretty decent over-the-counter sedative.
- - - - - BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW: "In the House of Stone and Light" by Martin Page Mercury Records Released 1994
Produced by Martin Page 50 min.
SONGS: In the House of Stone and Light - Shape the Invisible - I Was Made for You - Keeper of the Flame - In My Room - Monkey in My Dreams - Put on Your Red Dress - Broken Stairway - Light in Your Heart - The Door
RECOMMENDED mp3 DOWNLOADS: In the House of Stone and Light, Keeper of the Flame, I Was Made For You
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.