Marty Wilson-Piper, for those of you who don't know, is the lead guitarist in Australian new wave giants, The Church. The Church are hyper-productive: one album every other year or so, and solo albums from the various members on the off years. The Church released last year, so here is Marty's latest solo effort.

One thing to keep in mind: he's the lead guitarist in The Church. That means a lot of showmanship and guitar solos. I don't get into that so much, but Marty seems convinced that he needs to show us how great of a guitarist he really is. Also, since he doesn't get to sing or write lyrics all that much in The Church, this is his chance to go beserk!

There is a reason why he is the guitarist and not the vocalist/lyricist. His lyrics are all kinda boring and pretentious in that "i'm a sensitive British guy with a guitar" sort of way. And the guitars -- well there he knows what he is doing at least.

The album itself is disappointing. There are 14 songs on it. Three are noteworthy, and the rest of them are totally skippable.

Of the notworthy songs, one sounds a lot like The Church, and is, therefore, really good. It's a lovely little pop song called Forget The Radio. It's worth hearing, and reminds me of Seance-era Church -- lite guitar melodies and sunny little lyrics. Really good.

The second good song is called Watching Us and is produced differently than the rest of the album. On this one song, Marty's voice gets buried under the guitars. The effect is a nice, subdued pop song.

And finally there is the disc's closer, All That Remains. This song features Marty playing piano to accompany his singing. Surprisingly, he's a good pianist. The overall effect of this piece is nice and relaxing.

The rest of the CD, well, it's for the diehard fans i guess.