Hanging Out In Heaven

This is the first solo CD of Marty's that I've had the chance to hear, so I've nothing else in his back catalogue to compare it with - so far I've only heard him through his work with All About Eve and The Church.

I decided to buy Hanging Out In Heaven partly because I liked the 2 earlier MWP songs that the recently re-united All About Eve have been playing unplugged, and partly because his playing at these shows has just made me want to hear more. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but on first listen I was surprised that the album generally is a lot more laid back and mellower than I imagined it would be. Maybe I'd just been expecting something louder.

There was one track - Wondering - that stood out for me first time through, so much so that I went back to it straight away at the end of the first listen. I don't usually do that. Three weeks later, after listening to the album a LOT, this is still the track I like most. Apparently the lyric and melody were written in less than 10 minutes (source : MWP!). For me it's a great song that works well.

The rest of the album has grown on me gradually as I've listened to it. It's a mixture of moody, dark, bright and breezy, which may sound odd, but it does all work together. There aren't any tracks that need to be programmed out on the CD player, and overall I think it's going to stand up well to repeated plays in the future. Good songs always do.

Derek Timbrell

A music fan from Central, Oregon February 22, 2000

The songs are beautifully written. The production is excellent and the performance is superb. I have a feeling this is an album that I will be listening to years from now. It's not disposable music that goes away after a year or two. This is timeless music. What more could one want?

The opening track "Forget the Radio" decribes the feeling I personally have of being alienated by the mass marketing of music. There is a world of music out there that is undiscovered. I must add that one must read the lyrics (which are hard to see due to lack of size, but worth the strain). Another jem here is "Sanctuary". The melody will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up it is so beautiful. Above all I think it's Marty's honesty and integrity (and ability) in the way he delivers the songs that make this an amazing album.

Wall Of Sound

Marty Willson-Piper - Hanging out in Heaven
Rating: 84

Marty Willson-Piper has both the luxury and the burden of being "the guitarist from The Church." It's a luxury in many ways, because being a member of one of the only great guitar bands of the past 20 years that no one's ever heard of offers a vast tabula rasa on which to create a musical legacy. It's a burden, though, because how many "guitarists from …" have gone on to great success on their own?
Willson-Piper carries the weight well on his seventh solo outing, Hanging out in Heaven, the record that could perhaps make waves for him outside of the legendary "critically acclaimed" pool (which seems to swallow up so many great artists without the benefit of mainstream attention).

Willson-Piper spent five years writing and recording the album, releasing it on small San Francisco indie label Heyday Records (a coincidence, since one of the Aussie-based Church's first ripples in America was an album called Heyday) after seeing his previous solo efforts distributed on major indie Rykodisc. The fruit of his protracted labors, thankfully, is a timeless collection of 15 near-perfect, shimmering pop songs that span decades of rock and roll.

There are hints of the post-Sgt. Pepper Beatles here, warming a seat next to a bunch of Pink Floyd influences (most beautifully realized on "You Bring Your Love to Me"). On tracks like "Sanctuary," Willson-Piper's nearly 20 years of playing with The Church come to the fore with dense, full melody and ethereal vocals brimming over the top. But he really excels on heartbreaking, quiet ballads like "I Don't Think So," on which he reminisces of "dancing in a reggae club in Stockholm in the day," dedicating the song in the liner notes to: "loves lost everywhere." On tracks like "1929 Vintage Wine" Willson-Piper picks up the tempo and turns up the volume to paint a lush soundscape around his lyrics.

The big "but" of this album, however, is that because so many of the songs on the disc are quiet, moody ruminations on love lost and hearts broken, the record almost works better as a background soundtrack to our lives. It takes an unusual amount of attention to delve deep into what the tracks are saying before they rise above the collected whole of such a fully atmospheric album.

The previous statement is not, however, as much a criticism as an observation. There are few artists who can come so close to creating an ambient soundtrack to life, let alone a sterling song-by-song representation of it. Willson-Piper, thankfully, has done both. It just takes a little deep listening to realize this.

Andrew Strickman

news | tour dates | fragments | discography | text | links | contact