MATT SORUM'S FIERCE JOY
''STRATOSPHERE''
MARCH 11 2014
50:41
1 Intro (Stratosphere Part 1) (Damon Fox, Matt Sorum) 00:21
2 The Sea (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:04
3 What Ziggy Says (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:20
4 For The Wild Ones (Matt Sorum) 03:32
5 Goodbye To You (Matt Sorum) 04:32
6 Gone (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 04:14
7 Lady Of The Stone (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 04:09
8 Ode To Nick Drake (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:17
9 Blue (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:56
10 Josephine (Matt Sorum) 04:03
11 Land Of The Pure (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 05:33
12 Killers N Lovers (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 05:46
13 The Lonely Teardrop (Matt Sorum) 03:19
14 Outro (Stratosphere Part 2) (Damon Fox, Matt Sorum) 01:30
Abby Berman/Main Personnel
Scott Breadman/Percussion
Sussan Deyhim/Soloist, Vocals
Flower Sounds/Orchestra
Damon Fox/Mellotron, Mini Moog, Organ, Wurlitzer
Ace Harper/Vocals (Background)
Lili Haydn/Violin
Jeff Levitz/Main Personnel
Abby Loce's/Soloist, Vocals
Randy Ray Mitchell/Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Slide Guitar
Thomas Morse/Main Personnel, Orchestral Arrangements
Party Gang/Main Personnel
Paul III/Bass, Fretless Bass
Weronika Ratusinska/Main Personnel
Matt Sorum/Drums, Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion, Piano, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Cameron Stone/Cello, Soloist
Joe Sublett/Horn
Lee Thornburg/Horn
Alex Torodov/Keyboards, Programming
REVIEW
by James Christopher Monger, AMG
Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, and Cult drummer (not to mention rock & roll hall of famer) Matt Sorum's second solo outing is a big, dusty, vintage blast of open-road classic rock, breezy singer/songwriter folk-pop, and occasionally lavish chamber/psych rock that gives a tip of the hat to everyone from David Bowie and Joni Mitchell to Masters of Reality and Queens of the Stone Age. Assuming the lead singer position for the first time (his voice falls somewhere in between the affable, Southern Cali-cadence of David Lowery and the thick, weathered croon of Mark Lanegan), as well as contributing guitar and piano, Sorum infuses the excellent Stratosphere with decades of listening experience, offering up a warm, wise, occasionally surprising, and always inviting 14-track set that's bookended, '70s prog-rock style, by a pair of appropriately cosmic-sounding instrumental/spoken word bits that frame the album in a rich patina of tube-driven retro-goodness. He navigates the usual themes (love, loss, life, and death) with a deep understanding of their myriad tropes, but he's a shrewd enough songwriter to know that lyrical cliches wake up when musically spiced. Stand-out cuts like the stately, pedal steel-driven "The Sea," the meaty, horn-laden Spider from Mars tribute "What Ziggy Says," the driving Iggy Pop-meets-The Killers highway anthem "For the Wild Ones," and the lovely and unfussy "Josephine," the latter a stately tribute to his 101-year old grandmother, all feel like the work of an artist with nothing to prove, and all the time in the world to do what he loves best, making music.
BIOGRAPHY
by James Christopher Monger, AMG
The solo project of seasoned American drummer/percussionist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Matt Sorum, who started out with The Cult, took over the kit for Guns N' Roses in 1990 after the departure of Steven Adler, and co-founded Velvet Revolver. Matt Sorum's Fierce Joy (the moniker was coined by the legendary Lemmy Kilmister during a Motörhead tour that found Sorum filling in on drums) eschews the frenetic, hard rock approach of his past projects for a more acoustically minded, narrative-driven style that finds the veteran musician and singer/songwriter trading in the skins for piano, guitar, and most importantly, lead vocals. Stratosphere, the project's debut long-player, was released via Rok Dok Recordings in March 2014.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
''STRATOSPHERE''
MARCH 11 2014
50:41
1 Intro (Stratosphere Part 1) (Damon Fox, Matt Sorum) 00:21
2 The Sea (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:04
3 What Ziggy Says (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:20
4 For The Wild Ones (Matt Sorum) 03:32
5 Goodbye To You (Matt Sorum) 04:32
6 Gone (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 04:14
7 Lady Of The Stone (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 04:09
8 Ode To Nick Drake (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:17
9 Blue (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 03:56
10 Josephine (Matt Sorum) 04:03
11 Land Of The Pure (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 05:33
12 Killers N Lovers (Lanny Cordola, Matt Sorum) 05:46
13 The Lonely Teardrop (Matt Sorum) 03:19
14 Outro (Stratosphere Part 2) (Damon Fox, Matt Sorum) 01:30
Abby Berman/Main Personnel
Scott Breadman/Percussion
Sussan Deyhim/Soloist, Vocals
Flower Sounds/Orchestra
Damon Fox/Mellotron, Mini Moog, Organ, Wurlitzer
Ace Harper/Vocals (Background)
Lili Haydn/Violin
Jeff Levitz/Main Personnel
Abby Loce's/Soloist, Vocals
Randy Ray Mitchell/Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Slide Guitar
Thomas Morse/Main Personnel, Orchestral Arrangements
Party Gang/Main Personnel
Paul III/Bass, Fretless Bass
Weronika Ratusinska/Main Personnel
Matt Sorum/Drums, Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion, Piano, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Cameron Stone/Cello, Soloist
Joe Sublett/Horn
Lee Thornburg/Horn
Alex Torodov/Keyboards, Programming
REVIEW
by James Christopher Monger, AMG
Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, and Cult drummer (not to mention rock & roll hall of famer) Matt Sorum's second solo outing is a big, dusty, vintage blast of open-road classic rock, breezy singer/songwriter folk-pop, and occasionally lavish chamber/psych rock that gives a tip of the hat to everyone from David Bowie and Joni Mitchell to Masters of Reality and Queens of the Stone Age. Assuming the lead singer position for the first time (his voice falls somewhere in between the affable, Southern Cali-cadence of David Lowery and the thick, weathered croon of Mark Lanegan), as well as contributing guitar and piano, Sorum infuses the excellent Stratosphere with decades of listening experience, offering up a warm, wise, occasionally surprising, and always inviting 14-track set that's bookended, '70s prog-rock style, by a pair of appropriately cosmic-sounding instrumental/spoken word bits that frame the album in a rich patina of tube-driven retro-goodness. He navigates the usual themes (love, loss, life, and death) with a deep understanding of their myriad tropes, but he's a shrewd enough songwriter to know that lyrical cliches wake up when musically spiced. Stand-out cuts like the stately, pedal steel-driven "The Sea," the meaty, horn-laden Spider from Mars tribute "What Ziggy Says," the driving Iggy Pop-meets-The Killers highway anthem "For the Wild Ones," and the lovely and unfussy "Josephine," the latter a stately tribute to his 101-year old grandmother, all feel like the work of an artist with nothing to prove, and all the time in the world to do what he loves best, making music.
BIOGRAPHY
by James Christopher Monger, AMG
The solo project of seasoned American drummer/percussionist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Matt Sorum, who started out with The Cult, took over the kit for Guns N' Roses in 1990 after the departure of Steven Adler, and co-founded Velvet Revolver. Matt Sorum's Fierce Joy (the moniker was coined by the legendary Lemmy Kilmister during a Motörhead tour that found Sorum filling in on drums) eschews the frenetic, hard rock approach of his past projects for a more acoustically minded, narrative-driven style that finds the veteran musician and singer/songwriter trading in the skins for piano, guitar, and most importantly, lead vocals. Stratosphere, the project's debut long-player, was released via Rok Dok Recordings in March 2014.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
