22. Henning Pauly / Chain / Frameshift -
Babysteps / Chain.exe / Unweaving the Rainbow Genre: Thematic Prog rock / metal
For fans of: James LaBrie (particularly Unweaving the Rainbow and Babysteps)
What makes this special: Henning is one of the most talented multi-instrumentalists out there, and he's great at using the talent available to him.
If you asked me which albums JLB sounds the best on, without hesitation I would say
Unweaving the Rainbow and
Babysteps. On
Unweaving the Rainbow, he has the control and range of I&W era DT, and on
Babysteps he's an emotional and forceful powerhouse, and I believe it has more to do with Henning not compromising on what he wants, and realizing who the show piece is. But this isn't about JLB and how great he sounds on those two albums, it's about Henning's work as a whole.
His solo albums use a mixture of vocalists, but
Babysteps is the Pièce de résistance of his solo albums. A great cast of vocalists filling the roles of characters that become well established as album progresses will initially jump out at you, but after that initial wave of excitement washes over, you are still left with music that ranges from soft and atmospheric to aggressive and tension filled. The story itself doesn't exactly sound like the most interesting in the world to write about: an athlete becomes paralyzed in an accident and has to overcome his personal demons in order to try to start the road to recovery. Not exactly the most interesting premise on paper, but the music and the characters make you care.
Chain.exe is Henning's "regular" band with vocalist and co-writer Matt Cash. It is a much more straight forward prog rock. While not possessing JLB's range, Matt is a more than capable singer and this album really plays to his strength, and that is singing with feeling. It's a great listen that I still spin regularly even after several years.
Unweaving the Rainbow was my introduction to Henning Pauly. I picked the album up because I kept seeing rave reviews about it and hearing how good JLB sounded on it. If this were a straight up, unrestricted top 50 albums list, this album would be in the top 25 (and
Babysteps would probably be a top 50 as well). James fucking slays. Period. All the songs were taken from a Richard Dawkins book of the same name, long before he was associated with atheism. This album is all about evolutionary biology, and low and behold, it is pretty damn good. The songs range from airy and beautiful to aggressive and powerful, both in musical tone and JLB's vocals. This should be up most people's alley here at DTF.
Tracks to try: Listen to Me, What Do You Know?, I See, Cities Parts 1-7, Message From The Mountain, La Mer, Arms Races