Paper tigers (Tom Cochrane) (LP 890)

Tom Cochrane  Songs of a Circling Spirit (CD, EMI, 1997) ***  

Genre: Folk rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I Wish You Well

Gear costume: Paper Tigers

Active compensatory factors: Tom is a Canadian musician who is reasonably well known thanks to his hit Life Is A Highway from his 1991 Mad Mad World album.

This is an acoustic album, a relook at his career, and features songs from his solo years and as a band member of Red Rider. Tom is joined by other musicians on guitars and drums but it's definitely a solo approach here.

As such it has a cohesion of, yes, spirit, plus, as I'm not familiar with his work with Red Rider, it all sounds like a seamless collection.

My favourite song of his is I Wish You Well in whatever format he wants to deliver it (listen to the rock version here).

Interesting to note that he doesn't redo Life Is A Highway on this acoustic album. Instead there's a more introspective, downbeat tone that further unifies the album.

Where do they all belong? A bit of a stretch calling this folk rock, I know, but the use of acoustic instruments including mandolin swayed me.