Twenty by Adrian Belew

Who knew you could play
guitar by doing more than
just plucking the strings.

You won't find Adrian Belew's Twenty on sale at Amazon or anywhere else that I know of. That's because it was one of the rewards made available to backers of his Kickstarter campaign for FLUX: "music that is never the same way twice."

The album is a collection of 20 of Adrian's favorite songs from his previous albums. What comes through is his strong Beatles influence. Many of the songs sound like they could've been pulled directly off a George Harrison album. But for a follower of his work with King Crimson, Twenty was a nice way to broaden my perspective of his work.

1. Big Blue Sun
2. Men in Helicopters
3. Burned by the Fire We Make
4. I Remember How to Forget
5. Here
6. Looking for a UFO
7. People
8. On 
9. Bad Days
10. This is What I Believe In
11. Man in the Moon (remix)
12. Young Lions
13. Vy
14. House of Cards (remix)
15. Time Waits
16. Birds
17. One of Those Days
18. Fly
19. Postcard
20. 1967

To give you an idea of what Adrian Belew can do with a guitar, here's him playing solo, coaxing and sometimes strangling music out of his instrument. (Be sure to listen to parts 2 and 3 also.)

For a guy who jokes about being fired from two bands during 2014 (Nine Inch Nails and King Crimson), Belew seems to have quite a bit more music to share.

Adrian's website is www.adrianbelew.net.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.