Vibrations are scattered with Shan Kenner

Scatterbrained is the first thought that comes to mind when listening to Shan Kenner’s 2nd Album the behavior of vibration.

The first track, “Thumbprints” is a head-scratcher. While excessively free-flowing and personal, it seems the band's instrumentals lack enough substance and cohesiveness to be considered good, and this is the case with much of the album.

On the second track, one of the better songs on the album, entitled “the behavior of vibration," the Manhattan-based Jazz guitarist slows it down a tad at the beginning only to bring it up a few notches midway through to show-off his immense talent and passion on the guitar.

But yet, even on this song, the ending is scattered with awkward placement of piano instrumentals that frustrate even the keenest of listeners.

And what makes this album even more frustrating is realizing just how talented Kenner is, and wondering what he could with the talent if it was more applicable in his music.

For instance, listen to track 8, “Miracle Worker.” It starts out incredibly promising with slick percussions and slow, but sincere, piano-driven chord progressions which control the song throughout most of it.

Four minutes into the song, Kenner starts to speed up and he continues a structured and sweet sounding melody. Yet, nearly 10 seconds after that, Kenner's band resorts to overusing pick-up notes on the piano - driving the sound to be more immature than fine.

Musicianship: 6/10. This album clearly boasts talent, but Kenner tries too hard to be avant-garde and ultimately loses professionalism. However, his capacity for the Jazz guitar is superb. Quick transitions, smooth key changes and impressive solos on the piano and the guitar highlight this album.

Creativity: 5/10. While the songs may all start and end differently, the middle parts of many of the songs end up mushing together to form some mess.

Reviewer’s Tilt: 7/10. I am completely impressed by his skill with the guitar.

Score: 6/10.