Middle Tennessee progressive-rock guitarist, vocalist and music lover Bryan Collins has released his debut, full-length vinyl Life Is Great, self-produced along with Adam Bailey, out of Mach1 Entertainment. The vinyl version of the release reinvigorates the process of thumbing through an old, newfound and never seen, record collection, to find a curiosity-listen based on the album cover, maybe in the company of random, slightly dusty Stevie Wonder, Boz Scaggs, Bread and Alan Parsons records, looking at the album sleeve held in one hand while getting the record down responsibly with the other.
Life Is Great is that record and there are only 200 copies out there.
Collins, a veteran Marine, describes finding a life love in Life Is Great, one, seemingly, in front of him the whole album’s time. The track listing, filled with Collins’ Les Paul riffs, travels from the percussive dinner bell in “Live for the Moment” to church bells in “Think About It” leading to “Smiling,” a tongue-in-cheek insinuation that it’s not a smile of happiness, but a choice to holster a love unrequited instead of risking an “I Love You” to a friend. There’s an unsettling vagueness instead of closure by the end of the 10 tracks, dropping the notion of love completely at the end and leaving listeners wondering if it even existed. Bryan, who is the “girl” in “Worst Side of Hell?” Is that a Marine song or the unrequited sufferer’s song? Or both? Did the girl stay with an abusive boyfriend?
Anyway, a Marine’s independent, trained-to-be-okay mentality may be in play elsewhere here, noticeable in “Fire It Up” and the wonderfully well-composed “All About the Band.”
In the face of the vulnerability of exclaiming love to a friend who may not know about Collins’ feelings, fortunately, life equipped Collins with a love just as large for music.
Life Is Great blends some Alan Parsons progressive rock musicality with Boston’s arena might (on the title track, “Life Is Great,” for sure), along with some apparent influence of Moody Blues (on the intro of “Think About It” and the “Nights in White Satin” groove of “All About the Band.” The latter bears some Roger Waters somberness, as does “Worst Side of Hell,” while “Smiling” taps into Devo’s keys and “Reality Shock” displays hues of Huey Lewis and The News.
“Life Is Great” (imagine The Band’s Rick Danko jumping in to sing The Doobie Brothers’ “China Grove” on top of a Parsons/Boston foundation) describes a love interest hurting and no one but Collins able to see her hurt, as a listener pictures the girl on the album cover glancing into her future to hopefully see Collins standing there for her.
The production value throughout the release is noticeably focused on Collins’ guitar. He’s an axe-man, understand, but the high-register guitar riffs can sometimes distract from the vocals, the keyboard work and all of the other instrumentation.
Life Is Great is a darkly private, sardonic take on being in a crush from the heart of a trained-to-be-lone man seeing the opportunity of happiness within his reach. Life Is Great is available at bryancollins1.bandcamp.com, as well as Apple, IHeart, Spotify and Youtube.
