Album: Worlds on Hold
Artist: Prog Collective
2021 Purple Pyramid Records (Cleopatra Records Inc.)
CD: CL02513
Billy Sherwood: bass (all), drums
(1-11), guitars (1-5, 7-13), keys (1, 2, 4-7, 9), lead vocals (4),
vocals (12), backing vocals (1-10)
Todd Rundgren: vocals (1)
L Shankar: violin (1)
Geoff Tate: lead vocals (2)
Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal: lead guitar (2)
Jon Davison: lead vocals (3)
Patrick Moraz: keys (3)
Jan Akkerman: lead guitar (4)
Sonja Kristina: vocals (5)
Steve Hillage: lead guitar (5)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen: lead vocals (6)
Steve Hackett: guitars (6)
Roine Stolt: vocals (7), lead guitar (7)
Graham Bonnet: vocals (8)
Derek Sherinian: keys (8)
Joe Lynn Turner: lead vocals (9)
Martin Barre: lead guitar (9)
David Clayton-Thomas: vocals (10)
Geoff Downes: keys (10)
John Wetton: vocals (11)
Tony Kaye: keys (12)
Alan White: drums (12)
David Johansen: vocals (13)
Scott Connor: drums (13)
Produced, recorded & mixed by Sherwood at CIRCA: HQ Studios, CA
Mastered by Maor Appelbaum
Additional engineers: Hackett recorded by Roger King; Kristina
recorded by Robert Norton
A&R and Artists Relations: John Lappen
Tracks:
1. "Worlds On Hold" [Sherwood] (5:44), feat. Todd Rundgren & L.
Shankar
2. "Two Trajectories" [Sherwood] (6:33), feat. Geoff Tate and Ron
Bumblefoot Thal
3. "Anything But Goodbye" [Sherwood] (6:09), feat. Jon Davison &
Patrick Moraz
4. "Meant to Be" [Sherwood] (5:29), feat. Billy Sherwood & Jan
Akkerman
5. "Brave New World" [Sherwood] (5:30), feat. Sonja Kristina &
Steve Hillage
6. "Glory Days Ahead" [Sherwood] (6:06), feat. Arjen Antony Lucassen
& Steve Hackett
7. "Solsbury Hill" [Peter Gabriel] (4:35), feat. Roine Stolt &
Billy Sherwood
8. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" [Gary Brooker/Keith Reid/Matthew Fisher]
(4:33), feat. Graham Bonnet & Derek Sherinian
9. "Eye in the Sky" [Eric Woolfson/Alan Parsons] (5:07), feat. Joe
Lynn Turenr & Martin Barre
10. "Nights in White Satin" [Justin Hayward] (5:20), feat. David
Clayton-Thomas & Geoff Downes
11. "Penny Lane" [John Lennon/Paul McCartney] (2:59), feat. John
Wetton
12. "More Than a Feeling" [Tom Scholz] (4:36), feat. Alan White
& Tony Kaye
13. "People are Strange" [Raymond Manzarek/Jim Morrison/Robert
Krieger/John Densmore] (2:24), feat. David Johansen & Scott
COnnoer
Notes: The album was released on CD and limited edition, gatefold,
green vinyl on Bandcamp on 16 Dec 2020. (2) was the lead digital
single. A general release came Feb 2021.
The album mixes new compositions by Sherwood and 4 covers (7-10). As
with many Purple Pyramid releases, there are several "bonus" tracks
from their other releases. (11) is from Keep Calm & Salute
the Beatles; (12) is from '70s Box: The Sound of a Decade;
and (13) is from Light My Fire—A
Classic Rock Salute to The Doors. The album was
commissioned, written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. (1)
is explicitly about the pandemic. Sherwood said in a Feb 2021
interview, "When I was writing it [3], I thought it has a Yes vibe
to it." Stolt was originally just to do the vocal on (7), but loved
the track and became more involved, possibly contributing additional
instrumental work than his credits imply. Sherwood first described
producing, writing and playing (including bass) a third Prog
Collective album on Facebook in May 2020, mentioning guests of
Davison, Moraz, Hackett, Rundgren, Tate, Lucassen, Shankar, and
Bumblefoot. In a Jul 2020 interview, Sherwood said he was currently
working on the project and was about to start mixing. He described
mixing "Worlds on Hold" in early Aug 2020.
In a Feb 2021 interview, Sherwood explained: "The studio asked me to
do another one at the beginning of Covid so I started writing like
mad. A lot of the lyrics of the songs reflect the times we are
living in right now. [...] There was a lot of content to pull from,
with all that's going on, so it became easy to get it all together.
It's inspired by what we are going through so there's a serious note
to a lot of it." He went on to say that all the material was
"written in that period which frames the music". About the cover
songs, Sherwood said, "Brad Perera, the president of the label [...]
chose those songs based on what we were doing and what he thought
would blend with the kind of material I was writing. He gave me a
list of about 10 songs, I narrowed them down to 4. I thought ["Eye
in the Sky"] would be interesting [...] Alan Parsons was on the
first and the second Collectives, he couldn't participate in the
third one due to his schedule, so I thought that was an interesting
way to include him, by proxy."
Overall, I prefer this album to the more high profile Arc of Life with Sherwood and
Davison, which was recorded before Worlds on Hold but
released shortly after. (HP, 18 Feb 21)
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