A Double Exposure Of Vinnie Moore

A youthful 58, Vinnie Moore has been the lead guitarist with UFO since 2003. Youthful indeed because the band is currently on hiatus following the 74 year old Phil Mogg suffering a heart attack. They were to start their farewell tour this month but that has been cancelled on doctor’s orders. Get well soon, Phil, you are a living legend.

Vinnie has been a busy lad in the meantime and will shortly be releasing a 12 track album. Double Exposure is slightly unusual in that it features a number of guest vocalists. His previous offering was reviewed here in December 2020. So what does Double Exposure have to offer? The first thing to note is that it is available in both digital and on CD. (Details including personnel can be found at this link).

The second thing is that sometimes an album or an individual track needs to be heard more than once to properly appreciate. Fortunately, it kicks off with Vertical Horizon, a strong uptempo number that runs to just over 4 minutes. Rise is followed by Still Waters Run Deep. Don’t they just?

Track 4 is Paid My Dues; many musicians will identify with its sentiments, and non-musicians. River Flow is a pleasing downtempo number.  Hummingbird is another, slightly uptempo number. Hummingbird is followed by Astro Man, obviously an instrumental with a title like that, and so are the remaining tracks: Breaking Through, In Too Deep, Rocket, One Day, and Southern Highway.

In Too Deep runs to a shade over 5 minutes and has a distinct Satriani feel to it; there is some weird stuff at the very end. Overall this is a pleasing album but nothing special although most Moore fans will probably like it. A couple of the vocal tracks require a bit of work to appreciate because there is obviously a story behind them. Sadly, these are missing from the liner notes.