Album review:              Rob Luke  -   ‘If I Left You’.

‘If I Left You’ features work from the early days of Rob Luke’s musical development. Here, there is a much greater emphasis on vocal tracks than on the ‘Beach’ and ‘Tuesday Morning’ albums, where his later compositions are mainly instrumental pieces.

These two CD’s saw Rob develop a distinctive guitar sound which he skilfully blended with backing keyboards and drums to create a polished production of relaxing ‘mood music’ which generally conjure up mental images of peace and tranquillity.

In contrast ‘If I Left You’ is anything but relaxing or tranquil, with more of a rock music feel. Whilst it might appeal to a different audience it is non the worse for this, and perfectly illustrates Rob’s musical versatility with his anguished and tortured vocals occasionally evoking an atmosphere of darkness and foreboding.

This works well on sad and melancholy songs such as ‘Wishing You Were Here’ ; ‘Think About It’ ; Never Goes Away’ and the title track ‘If I Left You’, where the overriding theme is a lament for something or someone lost forever  –  an emotion felt most keenly by his friends and family given the tragic circumstances surrounding the production of this and the other albums. A particular highlight of these tracks is where Rob’s synthesised chords produce a dramatic and somewhat menacing conclusion to ‘Never Goes Away’.

Against that, however, some listeners might feel that on ‘Same Old Story’ a promising guitar introduction (reminiscent of Black Sabbath’s 1970 song ‘Paranoid’) gives way to a sinister vocal climax of anxiety and deeply disturbed emotions. This track and perhaps ‘Gone Forever’ which never quite seems to develop into anything constructive, are rare negatives on what is otherwise an excellent showcase for Rob’s undoubted talent. Bearing in mind that this represents some of his earliest efforts there is bound to be a bit ‘trial and error’ in some of the work.

‘If I left You’ is therefore the most experimental of the three albums with the raw opening track ‘She Never Came’ evolving into an altogether smoother ‘XXX’ on the ‘Tuesday Morning’ CD; and the mysterious song ‘Cutting Through The Silence’ which, in keeping with the direction in which Rob’s music developed, became a more refined instrumental called ‘Shimmer’ on the ‘Beach’ album.

Unlike many musicians, who never progress beyond performing cover versions of old songs, all of the tracks on ‘If I Left You’ ( and the vast majority of ‘Beach’ and ‘Tuesday Morning’) are completely Rob Luke’s own work. He wrote all the words and music, sings all the vocals and plays all the instruments – lead, acoustic and bass guitars, keyboards, drums and percussion. Besides this he also did all the production work, painstakingly spending hours recording, re-recording and mixing the various constituent parts of each track. One can only imagine the patience and frustration this must have entailed, as he constantly searched for the optimum balance and effects.

Two tracks, in particular, highlight Rob’s technical expertise :-  the instrumental ‘Fair Enough’, on which he blends an assortment of guitars, keyboards and drums to wonderful effect, and probably encouraged him to concentrate more on instrumentals on his later albums ; and the title track ‘If I Left You’, in which he has cleverly mixed two lines of his own vocals to form a duet effect, the voices oscillating from one speaker to another.

Perhaps the most poignant track on the album is ‘Looking For An Answer’ which could be seen as an indication of  Rob’s agitated state of mind as he constantly strove to turn the musical ideas in his head into tangible recordings. Whilst to the listener the end product might suggest that a highly satisfactory answer had already been found and could have developed into a promising musical career, the anguish and frustration in Rob’s voice suggests that to him, the absolute perfection he sought was always going to remain tantalisingly out of reach.

The rather abrupt finish on this and several other tracks could be seen as a microcosm of his life – a promising introduction, some thought provoking lyrics and then, just as it could have developed into a guitar or keyboard instrumental section, it finishes, mirroring a life needlessly and tragically cut short at the age of nineteen.

In his suicide note Rob asked his parents, Sylvia and Brian Luke to “please do something with my music”. To their eternal credit they have done exactly that, producing three albums and a short demo CD, all of which I have been privileged to add to my own music collection.

Sadly and perhaps ironically, the answer Rob sought was there all the time in his own musical talent and creativity, and these albums are the lasting proof.

If only Rob himself could have seen this.

Phil Malcolm

Harpenden,

Hertfordshire

9^th March 2009 

Rob Luke – ‘If I Left You’  (roblukemusic  RLL7)

Tracks:

1.     She Never Came  (3.36)

2.     Wishing You Were Here  (3.08)

3.     Think About It  (2.42)

4.     Song Without Words  (4.08)

5.     Cutting Through The Silence  (1.31)

6.     Looking For An Answer  (2.32)

7.     Same Old Story  (4.26)

8.     Fair Enough  (4.33)

9.     Never Goes Away  (3.49)

10. If I left You  (5.27)

11. Gone Forever  (4.57)

12. Autumn  (1.36)

This album along with ‘Beach’ and ‘Tuesday Morning’ are available at £5 each with free package and posting by sending your details to : roblukemusic@hotmail.co.uk

All proceeds will go, in Rob’s name,  to the Percy Hedley Foundation Charity (www.percyhedley.org.uk)