Audio CD review:
Colin Hay - Peaks & Valleys

Colin Hay - Peaks & Valleys

Band: Colin Hay Title: Peaks & Valleys Rating: Release Date: 1999-08-03 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Into the Cornfields 2: She Keeps Me Dreaming - Colin Hay, Conway, Deborah 3: Can't Take This Town 4: Walk Amongst His Ruins 5: Hold Onto My Hand 6: Keep on Waling 7: Dream On 8: Boy Boy 9: Conversation 10: Melbourne Song 11: Sometimes I Wish 12: Go Ask an Old Man 13: Sea Dogs

3rd Solo effort--1992 This album marked the start of Colin's acoustic sets. This 1992 album followed up 1990's Wayfaring Sons. No band here, no drums, no base, just Hay and his acoustic guitar. If you have seen him live recently you will know that he does a lot of songs off of this album as his latest tour is an acoustic set. The album starts off with the haunting "Into the Cornfields" which really is the best song on the album. The songs are steady up until track 8, "Boy Boy" which is more for amusement--a 60 second remembrance about a dog. Tracks 9 through 13 are incredible. "Conversation," "Melbourne Song," and "Go Ask an Old Man" are moving songs with good hooks and intelligent lyrics. I think this is one of his stongest albums but with Colin you always get strong musicianship, smart lyrics, and good melodies so saying Peaks and Valleys is a degree better than Going Somewhere or a degree lesser than Trascendental Highway would be silly-he has no weak album. It doesn't beat Wayfaring Sons in my mind just because I liked the full electric flourishment of sound that it brought to the table. However, Colin took a different approach here and it would mark a change in his career in that all of his releases following this album centered more toward the acoustic element up until 2000. This is a must have in its own right just as Wayfaring Sons is for what makes it great. . You can see a complete list of all Colin Hay discography, or go back to the Colin Hay tabs