Plastic Yellow Band – Breathe Air

By Andrew Bansal

The brainchild of South Carolina-based singer, songwriter and producer Gerald Jennings, the Plastic Yellow Band started last year and recently released its debut album ‘Breathe Air’ via Jennings’ own label ISI Music, and delivers 12 tracks that wholeheartedly represent his biggest musical influences.

Strongly reminiscent of John Lennon and The Beatles, Jennings’ music on this Plastic Yellow Band debut takes the listener through a journey of classic rock melodies laden with crooning vocals and beautiful guitar parts, well backed by excellent piano and keyboard layers and a solid rhythm section. There’s no denying that all forms of heavy music largely originated from the songwriting brilliance of The Beatles, and through his creations on this album, Jennings takes us back to the roots, with an hour’s worth of pure rock.

But with that said, while the first half of the album is dominated by acoustic Beatles-inspired tunes like ‘Lonely Place’, ‘Nowhere’ and ‘I Want To Feel Your Love’, it also presents heavier, harder-edged Zeppelin-esque compositions such as ‘She’s My Woman’ and ‘Nervous Stuff’, resulting in a nice balance between the two styles and keeping the listener interested because of the variation from track to track. In addition, tunes like ‘Oil Kings’ showcase a more progressive side of Jennings’ songwriting, a clear Dream Theater/Porcupine Tree influence, and add yet another dimension to the musicality of the album. This excellent effort ends with the ‘Sunlight’ trilogy which effectively encapsulates all aspects and influences of the style of music the band is attempting to portray.

Plastic Yellow Band makes a noteworthy debut with ‘Breathe Air’, and for fans of singer-songwriter style classic and prog rock, it’s an album very much worth checking out.

Rating: 9/10

Record Label: ISI Music

Release Date: March 1st 2014

Track Listing:
01. Lonely Place
02. She’s My Woman
03. Nowhere
04. Nervous Stuff
05. I Want To Feel Your Love
06. She Let It Down
07. Oil Kings
08. Alone (It’s Hard)
09. Climate Change
10. Sunlight I
11. Sunlight II
12. Sunlight III

Links:
PlasticYellowBand.com
facebook.com/PlasticYellowBand  

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