For the avid fans of Rick Altizer, who may have spent the last year or so downloading the weekly mp3s from his website, this album will reveal some new twists on familiar material. Altizer quite successfully used those "left-over" song projects from the previous recording sessions as a springboard for this third release. For those of you not familiar with Altizer, shame on you. But it's never too late to pick up the terrific work of a one-man musical symphony. Somewhat in the vein of Tom Petty, or The Wallflowers, Rick Altizer rocks through several well-crafted tunes on his third release, Go Nova, layering his own harmonic vocals, playing virtually every instrument by himself, even mastering, mixing and engineering all the tracks. As with the previous two releases, rock-legend, Adrian Belew, provides guitar work on several songs. The twitching, edgy "Love to You," seasoned with Arabic-influenced instrumentation gets high scores, as well as the pulsating "Resurrection" (which was released as "Puzzle" on his website, with a different chorus, but verses that are virtually the same.) Plenty of sarcasm abounds in "CM Superstar" - a tongue in cheek, poke in the ribs for Christian "rock stars" that have lost sight of their mission in life, while busy being prima donnas. Moody, and beautiful, "I Don't Deserve You" infuses the trademark "nervous" Belew guitars, and worshipful, but poetic lyrics. The Terry Taylor-penned "I Love You #19" is covered, as well as a new version of the charming, melancholy surf-rock of "Gold Coast," which Altizer wrote for Rebecca St. James to record on the Surfonic Water Revival compilation album from a few years ago. (Speaking of surf-songs, I wish he had included the Brian Wilson-ish song "Oyster," which was available on his website, but I'm glad that I at least have the mp3 on my hard drive.) "Tape Gun Baby" features more of the clever guitar work, and a driving, rhythmic beat. Closing out the solid set of music is "Risen," given more of the Arabic instrumental twist as in "Love to You." Again, Altizer has proven that he is a worthy candidate to be poster-child for "consistency in quality song-writing."
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Chris MacIntoshThe name of the radio show which follows mine on Sunday night is called The Sonic Attack. This title could very well describe the third release by artist Rick Altizer. With each album this guy just keeps getting better. Sure, on the first album it was a great calling card to say that Adrian Belew played guitar on some cuts. On Go Nova, it is hard to say whether it is Rick or Adrian filling in the…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Steven S. BaldwinRick Altizer is a lot like the Little Engine that Could: a happy, humble creature that by the sheer force of will and the application of inherent talent struggles and finally manages to climb over a challenging mountain. In Altizer's case, he writes, plays and produces entire albums of modern pop bliss in the often competitive landscape of Christian modern pop rock. The only downside to his…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Michial FarmerI'll be honest and say that the latest Rick Altizer record, Go Nova, has the worst cover art I've ever seen. It looks like it was slapped together in five minutes in Photoshop. However, my mother always told me to never judge a book by its cover, so I gave Go Nova a second chance. Altizer is well capable of making a good record (as his debut, Blue Plate Special, proved), although his songwriting…Similar sounding releases
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