Short Reviews [Tom Kelly - 2018 - "Spinning Through Eternity"]

Whereas the other two albums feature songs from 1978 to 2000, ‘Spinning Through Eternity’ features material from 2012 to 2015. The first song, “Remains of Childhood Lost” is the last entire piece Tom completed, and the next two songs, “Ma & Pa Kettle Go To Hell” and “Cows Appear Out of Nowhere” were what he was working on when he died, here presented and mixed how he wanted. “Catherine” is another stand-alone piece, while eth rest of the songs comprise “The Book Wife Suite” with the idea of a novel in music form, which ends with the title track. Perhaps unsurprisingly this album doesn’t seem to have the focus of the other two, given that they were fully completed and were both concept albums so contained a continuous line of thought. However, all is forgiven with the majestic suite, as it shows that Tom really shines when he has the time and space to really spread out his ideas. Of all three albums this is the one where he moves more into Anthony Phillips’s space as opposed Oldfield, with some of the piano melodies reminding me of Anthony’s brilliant piano album ‘Private Parts and Pieces X – Soiree’. Here he allows himself to repeat melodies, bringing in additional layered synthesisers and different types of guitar to create a different sound. There is also the use of drums, and while it works in some instances it doesn’t in others. The result is an album which is fascinating and always interesting but doesn’t maintain the same consistency of the other two. There are flashes of brilliance within this as a whole, just that overall I think I would listen to the other two albums first and come to this one last. All credit to Tom’s wife for making his music available to the world. It was only after making some of his music available to friends as ‘A Ghost of Pablo Verdes’ that she decided to work through his material and put together these albums. It cannot have been an easy task on any level, but now thanks to Nickie we can now uncover yet another of music’s great unknowns. This may not be the album I would start with, but for any lover of Oldfield, Hackett and Phillips, there is much on here to enjoy.