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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Terry Draper - Remarkable Women



Terry Draper is best known for his work with the most brilliant band called, Klaatu. They have released five studio albums from 1976 to 1981 and best known for their song Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft which the Carpenters covered in their 1977 album, Passage. And not to mention one of my favorite albums that I discovered while I was in Houston Community College eight years ago, Hope.

When Klaatu folded in 1981 after the release of the fifth and final studio album, Magentalane, Terry returned home to his recording studio as a solo artists at Oak Ridges, Ontario. He has released ten studio albums as a solo artist that one of them included some of the members of Klaatu that appeared on his debut album in 1997 entitled, Light Years Later.

Last year, he released his new album entitled, Remarkable Women which is a follow-up to his 2016 album, Searching. The theme of his new album covers the subject of the Women that were remarkable and ahead of their time. The album is released in a guitar-shaped USB format. The themes of Terry’s new album is very interesting and very good.

You have this psychedelic baroque pop flavor of Younger Girl in which Draper brings the late ‘60s to life and paying a nod to The Cowsills’ The Rain, The Park, & Other Things in the lyric to pay respect to the group while he delves into an automatic Arena Rock approach in the style of AOR (Album-Orientated Rock) on Shy Girl. It has this late ‘70s/early ‘80s style with some Hendrix-sque guitars and Foreigner’s first two albums into the mix and followed by some ascending midsection approaches.

Terry also has a bit of humor in his music. When you listen to Annabella, he’s going into his Jimmy Buffett and Calypso surroundings as you dance to the groove to watch the sunrise go down as She’s All Mine is dedicated to his wife. It has the Klaatu atmosphere with some guitar work, organ, and stomping drums.

With some Beatle-sque arrangements on his vocals, the lyrics and the story based on the love of his life, shows that the two of them have been there from day one and they will be together with each other, forever and ever. Dragon Lady is a haunting and stirring composition that is almost set in the Land of the Rising Sun.

It has the subject issue of the dangers of the characterizations of this creature that lives underground and what she can do to lure their prey featuring some Mellotron-sque moments, snarling guitar work as if Terry is letting the beast come out and ready to attack the city with her powers. The keyboard program on Maria, sounds like Ottmar Libert’s extraordinary guitar playing. Is it Flamenco-Pop? If it is, it’s very interesting for Terry to delve into.

Draper’s singing for the two characterizations doing this Tango-sque dance between each other as he does this little tug in the midsection to Graham Bond’s Love is the Law before the fanfare finale from the keyboards sounding almost like the horns to do one last hurrah. Abigail is a nod to the Music Hall and Salad Days essence of Vaudeville as Draper is singing through this megaphone-sque sound on his vocals before the Mellotron sets up the scenario of the golden years and a nod to Stackridge’s Dancing on Air.

Terry Draper’s new album, I will have to admit, after listening to it about six or nine times of Remarkable Women, it didn’t grab me, but it shows that Terry himself shows that he’s come a long way from both with Klaatu and as a solo artist. I’m not saying it’s a bad album, but it is a very interesting release and it’s a not-so-bad album, but pretty good, but it’s what Terry does and he shows he is more than just a member of Klaatu and doing what he wants to do.

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