It has been a long wait for Marc Jordan to release a recording of new music, and every second of this album is so masterfully produced, recorded, and performed, that every second of the interum has been worth the wait. If you are a Marc Jordan fan, this is the culmination of his best work presented anew. He does not reach a plateau, he just keeps rising. If you are unfamiliar with his music, and thus, have kept him on the periphery of the mainstream where he so belongs, then my only advice is that no matter what you choose to listen to, it does not get any better than this.
By late 1973, Marc Bolan's star was waning fast. No longer gunning out those effortless classics which established him as the most important figure of the decade so far, he embarked instead on a voyage of musical discovery, which cast him so far adrift from the commercial pop mainstream that when his critics said he'd blown it, he didn't even bother answering them back. Or that's the way it appeared at the time, and today, too, it must be acknowledged that 1974's Zinc Alloy & the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow is not classic Bolan, even if one overlooks the transparency of its title.
Helmed by T-Bone Burnett and Craig Street, the soundtrack to the music-intensive TV crime drama series gets ultra-hip artists to cover songs not necessarily associated with them—all with eerie musical backgrounds that match the program's tone. Unfortunately, the intriguing concept fares better on the small screen than on the big speaker, as artists like Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, and Joe Henry, among others, get lost in a uniformly listless production. Exceptions are Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman's original instrumental "Crossing Jordan Themes," the Holmes Brothers' take on Blind Willie Johnson's "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond," and Alison Krauss' tackling of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home." Series star Jill Hennessy debuts with Tom Waits' "You're Innocent When You Dream" and Bob Dylan's "It's all Over Now, Baby Blue" and acquits herself well enough.
Bruce Gaitsch is a highly regarded session guitarist who has been associated with top musicians and groups such as Madonna, Chicago, Richard Marx and Philip Bailey just to name a few.