CD Review // Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective (Arena Rock Recording Company)

http://arenarock.com/ //

From what I can tell by a Google search and clicking on a few links, this CD came out back in 2012 and is "out of print" which means you might only be able to find it secondhand unless you also stumble upon that distro where I found out that it was something not easy to come by.   In any case, I first heard Steve Scott with the album "Cross My Heat" and as "Emotional Tourist" will teach me (and possibly you) Steve Scott has quite the body of work prior to that album and it is not all the spoken word poetry I relate with him.

This CD opens with a song called "Different Kind Of Light" which has this garage / punk / classic rock feel to it.   The second song, which is the titular track, becomes dreamy and I enjoy the line "Write me off as a minor character" because I feel like it fits me so well.  It's just such a bold statement because people tend to always feel like they are the stars of their own movies.   The song also has this new wave vibe to it with a sax, a little like "Can't Hardly Wait". 

"Ghost Train" is a bit more funky and is about working a graveyard shift.   I struggle to find the exact name I want to compare this with, but it might be for the best because this music has more of a feeling to me that can be related by an image than a particular sound tied to a name.   If you are like me and grew up watching MTV when they had music videos on, you will remember a time when there were videos where they showed artists playing on stage and they had keyboard players in their band... That's what this sound reminds me of most.

"Love In The Western World" has some talking with singing, but it's still funky.   "Sounds Of Waves" has a really funky synth bass line and then the sax comes in as well, whereas "Shadowplay" is a little bit darker.   "Farthest Star" channels Phil Collins while "Come Back Soon" almost feels like Randy Newman singing an ode to Jesus.   "Empty Orchestra" is ambient tones and instrumental and then we go into "This Sad Music" which is dark pianos and then the spoken word I know from Steve Scott. 

"No Memory Of You" is also a poem, there are ambient tones and an audio clip behind it, which by the end we might out the meaning of exactly.   It's this story which could be played out as a short film easily and I do enjoy that about it.   I never really knew that Steve Scott made music like this before listening to this CD so it really makes me want to listen to his older songs as well now, but also I really want to hear more of this spoken word poetry mixed with music because I feel the world just needs more of that as well.   If you can get a copy of this CD (I think it's on Spotify if not) you should listen to it and listen to Steve Scott grow from beloved artist to icon.