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Artist: Bryan MacLean
Independent ( www.bryanmaclean.com)
14 tracks / 65 minutes
With Maria McKee of Lone Justice fame as his half-sister Bryan MacLean must have had music in his genes.
His first girlfriend was Liza Minnelli and he became a roadie for the Byrds, but his own fame came from the part he played in the seminal '60s band Love, with Arthur Lee. MacLean it was who wrote the key "Alone Again" on Forever Changes, the album that Mojo magazine called “the greatest rock album ever made”.
The band imploded through drugs and Lee's forceful personality, and MacLean became a Christian in the following decade. His career only started to experience a resurrection in the '90s, but he died of a heart attack on Christmas Day 1998.
Over the years he had assembled many devotional songs that his mother, Elizabeth McKee, has collected and made available on a two-CD set under the title Praise and Worship. These vividly show his 1960s song writing sensibilities, although his strong tenor sits uneasily with the simplicity of the songs.
Intra Muros is the music he was completing over the last two years of his life and is in a different class. Almost symphonic, with just a keyboard and orchestra behind him, there is very little to compare it with. For a framework, think of the sonic effect of a stripped-down twentieth century Tallis, a remnant of that 'sixties pop in the writing, together with a vocal performance that has been heavily influenced by musicals and classical aspirations.
There are some very memorable songs here, but also a few that are compositionally limited. With so few real points of reference, it is hard to recommend safely, but it should appeal to those who like their modern worship music with a classical edge, or simply enjoy hearing a singer whose adoration is passionate and whose voice seems other-worldly – almost as if he is practicing for heaven that was only months away.
Derek Walker