Ray Lynch - No Blue Thing (1992)

One-hit wonders. Every musical genre has them, and New Age keyboardist/guitarist Ray Lynch fits the qualifications. In the late 1980s Lynch's "Celestial Soda Pop," a bouncy, percolating instrumental, was embraced as one of the earliest radio hits of a then-fledgling New Age radio format (later to become smooth jazz). As a result, the Texas-born Lynch enjoyed a huge spike in popularity and sales that, ultimately, were not commensurate with his skills as a composer. Deep Breakfast, which contains "Celestial Soda Pop," achieved gold-record status, and eventually Windham Hill snapped up Lynch's entire catalog, eyeing an apparent New Age juggernaut in the making. No Blue Thing followed Deep Breakfast, and earned a nod from Billboard as the instrumental album of 1990. Yet its modest selections (light, Vangelis-like keyboards but with a floral touch and minor classical accents, particularly violin) confirm Lynch is basically a New Age noodler who possesses good intentions but not that many good ideas. "The True Spirit of Mom and Dad" is Lynch's showcase cut on this 40-minute disc and, despite its cheery effervescence and the claim that Lynch spent 1,200 hours in the studio on this one eight-minute piece, it will strike mainstream ears as something akin to average television theme music. --Terry Wood