DPX2 2025
It Happens When You Look The Other Way
Martian landscaper brings existential issues down to Earth to elicit supreme emotions out of memorable tunes.
Danny Peyronel has never defied listeners’ opinions of him, yet though the fact that this musician’s major claim to fame lies in his tenures with HEAVY METAL KIDS and UFO is difficult to deny, it’s best to approach the veteran’s rare individual ventures without such expectations. With the title of his second solo album suggesting the futility of trying to influence life events, the songs on the belated follow-up to 2005’s "Make The Monkey Dance" find Peyronel scrutinize details of current affairs, on personal and global levels, in attempt to reveal a bigger picture, if not the grand scheme of things, through an impressive variety of infectious melodies. A composer of note whose works were given voice to by, among others, Meat Loaf and David Gilmour, here Danny shines as a vocalist too, as his ivories take a back seat to songwriting.
At the same time, Peyronel’s playing with his audience by offering different perspectives on seemingly familiar subjects. While his update of Lionel Bart’s perennial “From Russia With Love” should make the record’s context resonate with today’s political climate, when the platter’s riff-driven titular opener borrows the “All The Young Dudes” leitmotif to fashion a refrain, the pictures these pieces paint become infinitely philosophical. Connecting Danny’s past to the present, there might be reminiscences of Hendrix in the incendiary rock ‘n’ roll of “Upside Down” and sympathy to refugees in “Run Away Rashid” which goes for an almost orchestral attack, so it’s only logical that a bonus variant of the tender serenade “You Won’t Have To Say Goodbye” is delivered in Spanish, befitting somebody who was born in Buenos Aires and has lately resided in Barcelona, but always aimed his music at the whole wide world.
Peyronel’s pipes pack a powerful spiritual uplift into universal balladry of the piano-led ballad “Heaven’s In A Chevy Tonight” before launching “Down Down Down” towards irresistibly catchy chorus and letting David Pereira-Oleart complement his lyrics with swirling guitar harmonies. However, whereas “A Different Kind Of Blue” accesses sweet despair and “Lost” places the artist in operatic element to expose his vulnerability, “When The Devil’s In” engages in a stylish, gospel-tinged shuffle, and the effervescent, Hammond-steamrolled “The Last Goodbye” renders the prevailing subject of farewell merry, rather than heartbreaking. Worth the two-decade wait, Danny’s latter-day effort is an impressively successful opus.
****1/3
