MARK CLARKE – Moving To The Moon (2010-11)

The name Mark Clarke should be quite familiar with anyone into 70’s hard rock, as the bassist spent time with acts such as Colosseum, Natural Gas, Rainbow, Uriah Heep (where he co-wrote the classic ‘The Wizard’), Ken Hensley, Mountain, Ian Hunter and Billy Squier, among others.
After 40 years in the business, Clarke is finally getting around to his first solo album, which is finally here and called “Moving To The Moon”.
This is perfect example of something being worth the wait.

Clarke is a unique songwriter mixing hard rock, ’80s rock&pop and classic rock.
Opening cuts “One of These Days” and “A Cowboy’s Song” rocks, and rock hard, with Clarke’s vocals somewhere in between Magnum’s Bob Catley and John Wetton. Mark plays bass and keyboards, and he’s assisted here by Ray DeTone (guitars, keyboards) and an assortment of drummers.
He shows his penchant for Eric Carmen styled ballads on “Without You” and the AORish “Modeleine”, two catchy rock&pop tracks that in a perfect world could easily see radio play.
“You Saved the Day” sounds like something that should be on a Pink Floyd album with Roger Waters singing it. It’s a big song that seems to get only bigger as it goes along. Mark’s vocals are both haunting and comforting in sound.

“The Falling” has a majestic, almost prog rock feel to it, until the anthemic hard rock guitars kick in, while the soaring “Heaven and Hell” could have easily been a leftover from an 80’s Queen album. Clarke’s vocals are truly inspiring on this one. Both tracks are amongst the best of the album.
A return to blistering hard rock can be heard on the title track “Moving To The Moon”, complete with some nasty riffs from Ray De Tone, and “Then Tomorrow Comes” has a rootsy, almost southern rock feel to it, with Clarke’s muscular bass grooves playing off DeTone’s layers of electric & acoustic guitars.
Last song on this album runs only 49 seconds long. It’s called “A Little Something” and it is just Mark and a guitar. It is so pure classic rock that drug dealers should be trying to sell it as the new ‘Feel Good’ medicine.

“Moving To The Moon” is a straight rock album that mixes-in 40 years of Mark’s musical wisdom to create layer upon layer of goodness.
Clarke set out to release a true classic rock album and he has succeeded.
This is a breath of fresh air as the songwriting is crisp, the lyrics thoughtful and the vocals and musicianship sublime yet stirring, a very tough combination to achieve. Mark has released some great music with bands in the past this album shows that he has saved the best for himself.
“Moving To The Moon” is throwback album to a time when the artist cared what an entire album sounded like.
It is a return to a time when pride was taken at an entire work and not just a pop single to make money or score chicks.
Originally available as digi-download, now has a proper CD release.
Good Stuff.

01. One Of These Days
02. Cowboy’s Song
03. Without You
04. Modeleine
05. You Saved The Day
06. The Falling
07. Heaven And Hell
08. Movin’ To The Moon
09. Then Tomorrow Comes
10. A Little Something

Mark Clarke – Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Guitar
Ray De Tone – Guitars, Banjo, Keyboards
Greg Morrow – Drums
Eric Darken – Drums
Richie Gajate Garcia – Drums
Chris McHugh – Drums

www.markclarkemusic.com
IF YOU LIKE IT, BUY IT!