VAST - Turquoise & Crimson (CD)

All Music Guide

Jon Crosby and his oneman project VAST always seemed like a bizarre fit in the majorlabel world, so it should not seem surprising that his fourth album is an indie release. What's unusual about Turquoise Crimson is that this twodisc set was originally released as a pair of downloadonly albums on Crosby's website starting in 2002. Based largely on fan feedback, Crosby transformed the best of these demos into 2004's Nude. Turquoise Crimson, then, is a belated official release of the 22 original demos in their unvarnished state; as such, these songs tend to be rawer and more immediate than Crosby's three previous albums (including Nude itself), which tend to polish the rough edges off of his Nine Inch NailsmeetsEcho the Bunnymen version of industrial mope rock. Here, songs like the epic ballad "Winter in My Heart" are stripped of their sometimes suffocating overproduction, and are far stronger for it. Though naysayers will find Crosby's essential weaknesses unchanged foremost among th...em a stentorian vocal style that combines the worst affectations of both Creed's Scott Stapp and Bauhaus' Peter Murphy Turquoise Crimson is essential for VAST fans. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less