While Triumph were releasing their ‘Edge Of Excess’ album, ex-guitarist Rik Emmett was doing likewise with this his second album ‘Ipso Facto’.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Rik Emmett
ALBUM: Ipso Facto
LABEL: Duke Street
SERIAL: DSRD 31079
YEAR: 1992
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
LINEUP: Rik Emmett – vocals, guitars * Peter Cardinali, Tom Lewis – bass * Richard Evans – keyboards * Steve Smith – pedal steel guitar * Ross Munro – tambourine * Greg Critchley, Randy Cooke – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Straight Up * 02 Bang On * 03 Let Love Conquer All * 04 Heaven In Your Heart * 05 Dig A Little Deeper * 06 Lickity Bit * 07 Rainbow Man * 08 Out Of The Blue * 09 Meet You There * 10 Can’t Lie To Myself * 11 Do Me Good * 12 Calling St Cecelia * 13 Transition * 14 Woke Up This Morning (Blues In My..)
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
While Triumph were releasing their ‘Edge Of Excess’ album, ex-guitarist Rik Emmett was doing likewise with this his second album ‘Ipso Facto’. Appearing on Duke Street Records at the same time alongside label-mate Stan Meissner (‘Undertow’), ‘Ipso Facto’ is more AOR than I’d originally anticipated.
Expecting a guitar-instrumental alongside some of the solo spots previously heard on earlier Triumph albums, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there are more vocal efforts that exhibit many of the traits heard on mid-80’s efforts by a whole raft of solo Artists. If any of you have heard his fantastic ‘Absolutely’ solo album two years previous, then you’ll know that Rik Emmett can more than hold his own without the skills of Messrs Moore and Levine hovering in the background.
The trademark higher-pitched vocals so often considered the most recognisable aspect of Triumph‘s sound has lost none of its distinction. The material though, drifts between pop/rock and blues/jazz tunes, a fence that Emmett is quite happy to straddle now that he doesn’t have the hard-rock lead-belt tied around his waist.
The Songs
The first couple of tracks are aimed at the radio market for sure. ‘Straight Up’ and ‘Bang On’ taking on a definite AOR appeal. The next pairing of ‘Let Love Conquer All’ and ‘Heaven In Your Heart’ are great ballads with a touch of class that a guy like Rik Emmett can deliver out of his back packet in an instant.
‘Rainbow Man’ weaves across different styles and tempos; then there’s the rather different and introspective ‘Calling St Cecelia’, where Rik delves into Paul Simon territory. A couple of blues tracks rear their head, like ‘Out Of The Blue’ and the lounge club sounding ‘Woke Up This Morning’, a sound I’m not so keen on, but what it does do is reinforce the key musical drivers in Emmett’s career.
Admittedly the album does tend to waver toward the end there, but one could be excused for this as the album does contain fourteen tracks, the attention to detail would be hard to maintain throughout.
In Summary
Apart from ‘Absolutely’ and this effort, Rik Emmett released ‘The Spiral Notebook’ in 1995. Since then he’s been relatively quiet, but who knows, Triumph just might break out of their inactivity and join the ‘old-boys’ reunion tour. The relationship between all three members (Emmett, Levine and Moore) wasn’t the best at one stage, but they are all good once again, but not likely to gig.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
