Rayon Vert - That Girl

Hear The Track Here

The age of supergroups is, thankfully, far enough behind us to poke fun at. For a while there, back in the day, you weren't anything unless you were a supergroup; a gathering of formerly successful musicians who came from other bands. The most obvious is Blind Faith featuring the talents of Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, or even - at a pinch Crosby, Still, Nash (and Young of course). Although a lot of the supergroups made great music, it tended to be shortlived, as did the bands. So, now they no longer plague our dreams I'd like to direct your attention to what I would consider to be a modern (ie indie) supergroup. Ladles and germs, I give you Rayon Vert...

Staffed entirely by jaded conmen and tricksters (Ed: he means seasoned musicians), Rayon Vert is comprised of DrC, Gary Carciello, Rob Grant and Farrell Jackson - all of whom we have come across many times in other guises. My first review was Rayon Vert Remastered (April 2010), a great power rock song but it was Life Under A Microscope (July 2011) that got their first Must Have from me and well deserved it was too. It's a given then, that I'd be waiting for this bad boy to roll round and you know what anticipation can do to me. That Girl is the first official Rayon Vert song of 2012 and that in itself is enough for good cheer. What makes all this really startling is that - by rights - I should be stating that Rayon Vert are an ashamedly prog rock outfit. If you thought anticipation was bad enough, the weepin' n' wailin' that comes with prog rock is awful to contemplate.

While there are distinctly prog sections to this track, it comes along with a cracking rock song attached to it and right there, it gets my vote. See, I can take any amount of instrumental posturing so long as there is a point to it. See, I actually liked Yes (THE prog rockers) right back there at the beginning, because they made sense to me as a musician, but when they went up their own butts - along with all the other proggies - I declined to follow. So while Rayon Vert's chosen genre still has that half dead greenish tinge about it, their music kicks seven kinds of **** out of anything you care to name. Hand on heart though, not as immediate as Microscope but musically much more satisfying to me. Odd that.

Highly Recommended class act.