Kenneth Ishak
I did a bit of a background check on this guy and regardless of my unfamiliarity, he’s been around for what could be classified as U2 stardom. Kenneth Ishak, (the hardest name to catch on EVER, and one would be forgiven for confusing the poor fella with a country and western singer of the past) has made records with Beezewax (yeah, me neither) since 1997 and toured almost continuously since.
New album , his third solo one apparently, “Silver Lightening From a Black Sky” is set for release in the UK on the 18th Feb 2008 and unfortunately lacks anything that sells it to me at speed. It’s allright and the first six tracks are clever, suspense build ups for the final half that never really arrives. ‘Snakes in the Grass’ and ‘Hell’ are a couple of the albums highlights.
You feel as though Ishak is fighting for recognition in a field that will never even notice his shadow behind Aqualung, Stephen Fretwell, and Ryan Adams, all keeping him well and truly out the loop.
The Norwegian has failed to sell his album to me, with a less than impressive cover sleeve and a pretty drab appearance if I’m honest. The album title is hardly memorable, in fact I haven’t looked at my info for a while and can only vaguely remember its outline.
I guess it depends on what you expect from an album. If you need a bit of fight or can cope with a mellow sing along that never really says anything in particular that matters. Cynical I know but I was expecting good things from the opening tracks ‘The Passionate’ and ‘New Rising son’ and instead found myself grasping at good attributes of the package.
I feel kinda harsh stating its imperfections but I just can’t bring myself to think its anything fancy. It’s not as good as so much other material in its genre and it’s just too weepy. Grandma might like it, in fact Grandma would love it- as might a mellow music loving background volume family.