If you think you already know the music of Bruce Hornsby think again. If you think going from his piano pop debut The Way It Is to the juke joint jumping Hot House was a major change in Hornsby's repertoire, this leap is greater. Big Swing Face, the follow-up to Hornsby's hippie influenced, jazz improv live record Here Come the Noise Makers nearly abandons the piano entirely, putting Hornsby's southern yet soulful snarl in between a series of electronic loops and meaty guitar hammering.
As adventurous and unpredictable as the jump is, Hornsby may have bitten off a bit more than he could chew on this record, given the fact that many of the tracks are so far off the beaten path that they have the tendency to go over listener's heads. It's hard to get used to Hornsby's laid back demeanor meeting the funky beats of cuts like "Sticks and Stones" and "Cartoons and Candy," just as it's equally alarming to hear the electronically driven, studio generated grooves of "So Out" and "Try Anything Once." The title cut has a strange aura surrounding it as well with loop heavy enhancement that's placed over one of the few keyboard backdrops across the entire record. And don't expect the album's strongest track "Place Under the Sun" to be a sequel to "A Walk in the Sun" either. It closes out the disc with a powerful technological romp and a crackly soulfulness that are unaccustomed to Hornsby's past pedigree.
All in all, Hornsby's thrown longtime followers for yet another loop in his longevity filled career and I'd venture to guess that faithful followers would at least want to have this in their collection to chart Hornsby's continual evolution. It may not be what they're used to, but they've got to at least credit Hornsby for straying away from the formulaic niche that have restricted artists of his long running statue to light rock and adult contemporary radio formats. Hopefully, those artistic risks will continue on this multi-talented performer's future work, preferably without such radical departures and occasionally cloudy trains of thought.
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