Album: Don't Look Down
Artist: Arc of Life
2022 Frontiers Records
CD: FR CD 1275

Billy Sherwood: vocals, bass
Jon Davison: vocals
Jimmy Haun: guitars, vocals
Jay Schellen: drums
Dave Kerzner: keys, vocals (credited, but didn't actually contribute any vocals)


Produced, recorded & mixed by Sherwood
Recorded & mixed at CIRCA: HQ
Mastered by Maor Appelbaum


Tracks:
1. "Real Time World" [Sherwood/Davison] (9:02)
2. "Don't Look Down" [Sherwood] (6:20)
3. "All Things Considered" [Sherwood/Davison] (5:15)
4. "Colors Come Alive" [Sherwood] (7:53)
5. "Let Live" [Haun/Sherwood] (6:24)
6. "Arc of Life" [Sherwood/Davison] (17:42)
7. "Don't Look Down (acoustic version)", Japanese bonus track


Notes (**): The album was released 18 Nov. (3) was released digitally before the album, with a video, followed later by (5).

The first Arc of Life album was released in Feb 2021 and was based on a set of material Sherwood and Davison had written while on tour with Yes. In the Feb 2021 interview, asked if there was additional material that didn't make the first album, Davison replied, "We have another 3 or 4 songs that were developed in tandem with the rest of the material. They'll be appearing on the next AOL album. One of these is a 25 minute epic." On 7 Mar 2022, Sherwood posted a picture of him and Haun to Facebook, saying, "Working on the next "Arc Of Life" CD". In an interview with the Yesshift podcast, uploaded 19 May 2022, Sherwood said
we've actually made a new record and I literally just finished it and had it mastered by Maor Appelbaum just about [...] three weeks ago now. So, now I'm just working on cover art and getting all the sort of stuff together with Frontiers Records to get it ready to come out. When they put it out, I don't know
He continued: "The first record [...] admittedly is a little bit more straight ahead in places and a little more, you know, not that it's a bad word, but kind of commercial. […] the record starts that way and then it evolves into a sort of more progressive feeling thing by the end. And this is almost like a relay race now where we took that baton and now we've just gone farther, faster with it, and so it's much more progressive on this one. The last track is 17 minutes long. It's actually called "Arc of Life The Last Track"." Dan Shinder, interviewing, asks how that name came about. Sherwood replied, "the first track that Jon and I wrote for this, when we were just writing for fun, y'know, we kept writing this song, and kept writing and writing, and eventually it was like 17 minutes long. So when, when it came time to sort of put together the first record, I played music for Frontiers and that was one of those songs and they kind of were, like. 'Well, this is really cool, but we kind of were looking for more of a straight ahead kind of record here for the debut.' So that song just kind of went on ice for a minute, but has since now resurfaced and been fleshed out and developed and just sounds killer. It's the right evolution for the band at the right time".

In Sep 2022, Kerzner said on ProgressiveEars.com: "The new album is a bit proggier than the first one. It is still primarily Billy writing and producing for this one. We wanted to get together and write as a band but Covid got in the way. Third album that's the plan." He then added, "There were more songs Billy and Jon had written than were on the first Arc of Life album. Some songs they write end up with Yes, of course, but some they wrote together while on tour ended up on the second Arc album." And further:
the two people singing on both albums are only Jon Davison and Billy Sherwood. Although, for the first time Billy played in my solo band [...] after that experience he said he wanted me to also sing on the third Arc of Life album where we'll all write together as a band. That was actually the initial plan for the second Arc album, but, thanks to Covid we weren't able to all get together so easily in the last 2 years.

Fortunately, Billy and Jon had written a lot of material while on tour with Yes and it was enough for two albums. This is also probably why they have a cohesive connection to each other stylistically besides the fact that it is a band led by, mixed by and produced by Billy. [...] this [the second album] has longer proggier tunes than the previous Arc of Life album

[...] With Arc of Life, so far I've really had the least amount of creative input of any band or project I've been in. It was a band I was added to because we're all friends and they needed a keyboard player. I can't wait to play live with these guys because we have some interesting fun surprises for the live show. I look forward to a time when I can write with them as well!

In Nov 2022, he said on ProgressiveEars.com, "I don't sing one word on it." Asked if had more writing/arranging input on the second album than the first, Kerzner replied on Facebook (Sep 2022): "No not on this one either. We wanted to all get together as a band and write but Covid messed that up. Next album we plan to all write and sing as well." He had talked about the first album on ProgressiveEars.com in late 2020: "It sounds like the style of the songwriters as most albums do. [...] If I was co-writing with them it would probably go further away from their sound just by nature of blending styles and influences but... hopefully that'll happen down the road." And, later the same month, "I'm a late addition to the band and came in after the songs were already written and mostly recorded. [...] I hope my contributions will be part of the equation in the future. That was the idea of me joining... that we'd tour and co-write the next album together. Of course, a pandemic can throw everything up in the air so who knows what will happen when?" In a Nov 2022 post to Facebook, Kerzner said, "The main songwriter, producer and band leader of Arc of Life is Billy Sherwood."

The end result is an album that sounds a lot like plenty of previous albums by Billy Sherwood/CIRCA:/Prog Collective. (HP, 18 Nov 22; updated 22 Nov 22)

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