The Old Road

In the fall of 2007, Martin Orford left the band he had co-founded 26 years earlier, IQ, in order to work on his second solo album, released a year later. Was The Old Road worth the move? Only time will tell, but one thing is sure: fans of IQ will feel at home in this classic progressive rock project, described by the artist as "unashamedly retro and proud of it." The keyboardist (and once briefly lead singer of IQ) has handled all keys and some lead vocals, but also guitars and other miscellaneous basic tracks, before turning over the tapes to guest musicians and singers. If the personnel changes from track to track, the ranks have been kept rather slim, resulting in a coherent album. Spock's Beard's Nick D'Virgilio drums on most tracks, with IQ's Andy Edwards making an appearance or two. The Beard's bassist Dave Meros was also invited to the party. It Bites guitarist John Mitchell contributed a bunch of tracks, along with Jadis' Gary Chandler. And Steve Thorne, on whose two Emotional Creatures albums Orford has played a key part, is everywhere on this album, either up front or lurking in the back. More surprising is the contribution by Gryphon's Dave Oberle singing a nice bass vocal part in the title song. Two tracks could easily have been included on an IQ album: "Grand Designs" and "Out in the Darkness," the former sung by Orford (a competent vocalist, if slightly lacking power), the latter handled by Thorne. The instrumental "Power and Speed" is a superb high-octane affair. Mitchell is the lead singer on "Ray of Hope" and "The Old Road," both a tad bit harder-hitting and streamlined than your average IQ track, while John Wetton gets to sing one strong song ("The Time and the Season," a typical grandiose IQ workout) and "Take It to the Sun," a pretty dreadful arena rock-type song. It seems that most if not all of the material here could have found a home either within the confines of IQ or in Jadis, Orford's other main occupation. In any case, this is a very fine prog rock album, with a slight penchant toward the Asia end of the prog rock spectrum. Folks annoyed by the idiosyncratic voice of Peter Nicholls (IQ's singer) might seize this as an opportunity to enjoy Orford's songwriting skills. However, you may find yourself wishing that Nicholls were singing these songs just the same. ~ Francois Couture|