Search - Andy Fraser :: Naked... and finally free

Having disappeared from the public radar twenty years ago, Andy Fraser is back - but not with a vengeance. Not that he's mellowed - Fraser's always been very lyrical, which shows in any of the FREE tunes he took a part in writing, a new ballad "Someone Watching Over Me" on par with any of those - Andy's just different, and that's a natural progress. And it's not just his perception of life has changed, maybe it's America that does this to people; Terry Reid, another blues legend, took a similar musical path. A path which buzzes with polyrhythmic excitement where the famous bass rumbles only in telling "Too Far To Turn Back Now", while a lead-in single "Healing Hands" gently kicks a jungle feel under the skin. Sting must beware, as there's a real contender coming whose lyrics, filled with shocking candour as in "Yours Faithfully" that tackles Fraser's illness, could hit much harder if not for the light-hearted reggae groove. This groove, so delicious in "All I Want Is You" (no, not the one by Andy's former sparring partner, Paul Rodgers), hardens, roots-style, when "Jungle" brings forth the issue of intolerance. Yet there's a fun in there, the joy oozing out of the brass-splashed rap of "Family", and "Standing At Your Window", one of Andy's several co-writes with Frankie Miller, is surely chart-bound. He's unleashed, Mr. Big, he's happy and he shares this feeling. Thumbs up!