Andy McKee

Art of Motion

2005

Acoustic

Track by Track:

Art of Motion – This is a really cool sounding song, it has very complex rhythms and a different style of guitar playing than most guitarists.  This is just one man and one guitar on one track.  He still manages to get the bass feel with a good lead in this song.  Amazing job 10/10.

When She Cries – Another great peice of work by McKee, very peaceful as well.  It gets you just in that calm mood and mindset, unlike the rest of the music I listen to.  Andy McKee just has a way with the guitar that makes everything he plays sound good. Another AMAZING job 10/10.

Drifting – This one is my favorite for sure.  He taps the entire song other than the few chord strums, but he incorporates a percussive beat with a bass part and a continuous harmony.  If you have heard Andy McKee, or seen him on youtube, you most likely listened to this song, with more than 29,000,000 views on rpoland, and almost 30,000 on ANDYMCKEEVEVO, this is his most popular by far.  It has just a good mix of bass and lead, he did another wonderful job, 10/10.

For My Father – Yet again, he is just on a roll with amazing songs, this was one of the most relaxed piece on the entire album, slow but yet faster at parts.  This song sticks out to me because of the, I don’t want to say romantic, but calming piece with its lead patterns and often bass notes.  It just deserves a 10/10.

Practice is Perfect – This one just sounds cool, I just don’t really know how to describe it.  It seems to have a more layed type of feel to it.  I can’t even explain what is going on, but Andy McKee makes it work, just with the fast muted strings with the lead progression over the top.  This one gets a 10/10.

Shanghai – This one changes tempo quite often throughout the song.  He did a great job composing and arranging this piece, to make it sound authentic.  He uses the beat he makes with his thumb against the muted strings to create a kind of percussive feel with consistency.  Another 10/10 for McKee.

Into The Ocean – This one, is just amazing he uses a Guitar/Harp combo for this one.  You just have to watch him play it, you don’t get the full experience just listening to it on a CD or with your iPod.  He uses both instruments and it is just amazing what this man can do with 6 strings, sometimes 10.  This is another 10/10 performance.

Nocturne – This one seems to have more chords than the other ones, but even with this songs odd tempo shifts, it still sounds just amazing to me.  Maybe because I play guitar and am trying to learn of of his more simple songs but it is still just so complex.  Just the rhythm of all his songs and the tempo in this one is just so irregular and different it just works out perfect for the way this song was written.  Andy McKee gets another 10/10.

Heather’s Song – This one is one of those that have a slow start with harmonics, but it builds up and just gets gets kind of a relaxed feel to it with fast melodies and complex rhythmic patterns.  If you don’t get the trend yet, Andy McKee has pretty much his own theory on music and it is just flat out hypnotizing how he plays guitar on this album.  He gets another 10/10.

Samus Stardrive – This song’s intro just seems so out of place, but as it goes on you see where that fits into the song, it is just harmonics with some muted strings and bass notes.  He has a way of making practically anything sound good together.  Even though this is one of the shorter songs on this album it gets a 10/10 for what it did in the time it took.

Keys to the Hovercar – Yet again a really cool progression for the intro and just builds from there, this is most likely the fastest pace a song goes on this album with a constant flying tempo he keeps accuracy notes at the top of his priorities, he does such an amazing job with this song and gets a 10/10.

Rylynn – This is a slow song to end the album off with.  Really this whole album just builds up to this song with its slow and dramatic feel until the percussive muting of the strings happens, then it just gets stuck in your head.  Andy McKee did a truly amazing job with this song getting a 10/10.

Well that is the album “The Art of Motion” and it gets a 10/10 that is the first perfect I ever have given an album and maybe also the last.  Because I highly suggest getting this album.  It is just a really good listen and if you have any suggestions just email me at (“bkatula@project-11.com”).  Thats all until next time.

-Brad