When a record reviewer comments that a CD holds up to repeated listening, it is always meant as a compliment. Necessity can sometimes be the motivation in returning a disc to the player, providing the listener feels any urgency to understand what an artist might be trying to say.
Stephanie Rearick should be very proud of
The Bucket Rider, a solo effort created in 2003 -- but like the
Franz Kafka writing from which its title comes, this is a work that requires thought and concentration and is delightfully relaxed about the concept of rewarding its audience with specific insight. It is not like getting smacked in the head with a hammer, an action in which the meaning is clear but just about the last activity anybody would want to experience in repeated doses. Truly concentrating on creations such as
The Bucket Rider can be difficult, a challenging situation for the musician who is also a lyricist.
Rearick's instrumental skills on piano pretty much dominate the first listening; this is a one person and one piano album, despite the occasional overdubbing effect. But it is not the affair of a fool's book of songs, simple chords pounding away behind sweaty emotional messages. Rather, the most positive aspect of progressive rock is here in its full glory, that being the overwhelming influence of classical music. A performance from one of 20th century composer
Samuel Barber's collection of songs is in the program, so this aspect extends beyond influence into repertoire itself. Mostly, though,
Rearick likes to reference
Bartók,
Debussy,
Stravinsky, and others in the context of pieces that include tantalizing vocals, singing words that surely must be at the heart of the CD's true meaning.