Glenn Hughes - Soul Mover

Genre rock Publisher Sanctuary Records External Links Sanctuary Records

Try as he might, Glenn Hughes will always be remembered as one of the more memorable replacement players in rock music. From 1974 to 1976, he replaced Roger Glover as the bassist for Deep Purple, and shared lead vocals with another notable journeyman in David Coverdale, who replaced Ian Gillain. Then, in 1986, Hughes was a part of Tony Iommi's disastrous attempt to resurrect post-Ozzy, post-Dio Black Sabbath in 1986. Over the past three decades, he has put out a smattering of solo records and collaborations with fellow musicians (such as Joe Lynn Turner and Iommi), but it's his performance on the highly underrated 1975 Deep Purple gem Burn that most will ever care the most about.

Still, the guy keeps plugging along, and his newest solo disc, Soul Mover, attempts to revitalize Hughes's career. For this album, Hughes has assembled an ace band behind him, comprised of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist JJ Marsh (with Hughes handling his usual bass and lead vocals), and a tight unit it is, as Marsh often lets fly with flashy licks and sinewy riffs that hearken back to the hard rock glory days of the late 1980s, while Smith and Hughes form a formidable rhythm section, bolstered by Smith's thunderous funk-fueled percussion. "Soul Mover" (which features a guest solo by Dave Navarro) and "She Moves Ghostly" offer no-frills hard rock, the band sounding terrific, but the more the 66 minute disc wears on, the more bloated it becomes, each track sounding more and more like an empty Chili Peppers imitation, or even worse, evoking the turgid tones of Audioslave, the band resorting to tired riffs, lachrymose tempos, hookless melodies, and pretentious attempts at adding deeper, "spiritual" sounds to the music. The album periodically tries to wake up from its sleepwalk through hard rock cliches ("Change Yourself", "Let it Go", and "Isolation", for instance), but are unable to save what gradually becomes a tiresome noodlefest. Soul Mover earnestly tries to add nuance to old-fashioned hard rock, but ultimately tries much too hard, and loses any soul it might have had in the process.