Robin Trower
No More Worlds to Conquer

Robin Trower has no more worlds to conquer, perhaps that comes with a long life in music and countless album, first with progressive rocker Procol Harum and then under his own moniker. He is a guy that is said to have inspired many great guitarists, and that is probably true to some extent. I must admit that I didn’t know much about Trower before this album made its way into my playlists, and I didn’t select it because of its artwork that I don’t find too brilliant, but not terrible either. I wonder what you do when there is nothing more to conquer, I guess you cannot ask the Russian president for the answer, or any other conqueror for that matter.

Blues rock is what it is on offer, soulful guitar playing goes through the entire album that shows decent variation and depth. Singer Watts is pretty good too, and the album has a nice emotional tone throughout. The songs are mostly a little slower, there aren’t any really fast songs, so the radio friendly hit songs might be somewhat absent here. The feel of the guitars is fresh and good, the album itself doesn’t offer anything particularly original though. And I would say that the 44-minute playing time is a little on the long side thanks to the album being mostly slow in tempo, a bit more dynamic in that regard would have done wonders.

I miss a faster, more sing-along friendly or just up-tempo song. I think the album feels a bit too slow, and even with excellent guitar playing and vocals I find it difficult to focus on the album. The songs aren’t captivating enough for me to really want to listen, and I find my mind wandering a bit to other domains, that doesn’t make the album bad or anything – just not brilliant. Trower is certainly a brilliant guitarist, I just would have liked him to make a more diverse album, up the tempo from time to time.

If you like blues rock you will most likely enjoy this one as it is a well-made and excellent performed album showcasing the bluesy abilities of a great guitarist. It may not be quite up my alley, I like it faster or more complex, this is more of background album to relax or rest and that is something I rarely do so I doubt Trower will be played much more now that I have written about his new album. Still, I cannot help being impressed by the way he manages to get his guitar to speak, very few guitarists can make their instrument that expressive.

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