Marvin B. Naylor
Album: Earth And All The Universes
Label: Barcarolle
Tracks: 10
Website: http://marvinbnaylor.com

The sight of a Marvin B. Naylor album coming out of the padded envelope is always one that fills me with a real sense of anticipation and that feeling was in no way diminished when his latest cut "Earth And All The Universes" made its way from PO Box to cd player, because Marvin B. Naylor is an innovator, one that makes song, tunes and 12 strings work to find that something new.

Whilst you can feel his inspirations coming through, classic sixties pop and psyche, it's the way he combines them with a love of words and a freedom to express them in a means of his choosing that gives his music a real distinction and a razor sharp cutting edge.

That often means that if you're looking for an instant fix, a hit of the here and now, that his albums might not be for you, that said there are always songs on his albums that take an immediate hold on you and on "Earth And All The Universes" it's two instrumentals, "The Pirouettist" and "Ballad In E Major" that really grab you, the former uses voice as an instrument, the latter a piano ballad where the piano does all the talking.

There is never any compromise in what Marvin does, the album feels very much of an artist that clearly shouts out, 'This is me, take it or leave it.' Sometimes that can be quite a surreal experience, the aural equivalent of watching the flickering black and white silent shorts from the early days of the moving image, doing something because it was pushing a boundary when others had yet to even see a border.

Yes there were times when I got partway through a track only to flick the player forward because it was a little too intense for the mood I was in, sometimes I did it because it seemed a little frivolous, but ultimately I would always go back, because the effort is always worthwhile, there's always a reward to be had.

Neil King