Ray Wilson - The Weight of Man (2021)

Raymond Wilson (September 8, 1968, Dumfries, Scotland) is a Scottish musician and songwriter best known as the vocalist in the post-grunge band Stiltskin, and Genesis from 1996 to 1998. Ray Wilson has been around as a solo artist for more than 20 years now and has made a number of very different albums in that time. He was always particularly good when he consistently occupied a corner of the genre. Thus SHE was an excellent harder rock album, in particular it was nobly produced and also showed - especially in comparison with, for example, Millionairhead by Cut_, how a good production can present an album in a completely different way. An example from the other corner of the spectrum was Song For A Friend, a kind of unplugged album that at times picked up the flair of his debut Change. Again, the production is remarkable and with the title track he managed to create one of the most emotional songs of his career. On the other hand, there are many solid albums in Ray's vita, on which sometimes the decisive difference and edge was missing, or on which next to excellent songs there was also filler material. Nevertheless, Ray always had great songs and moments on his solo albums and many fans wish more and more that he also shows this more prominently during his live shows.
After his (overdue) work show Upon My Life, strange times dawned. First the Brexit, which of course affected Ray personally due to his biography. Then came the COVID crisis and Ray had to reorganize himself, like many other musicians. He chose a surprising path: first he gave a few digital concerts and also presented a few new songs, but then he announced the start of a crowdfunding campaign for a new studio album. Ray decided on the title early on: The Weight Of Man. It sounds like a burden, a certain heaviness, but of course it fits perfectly with the time we've been in since the spring of 2020. From time to time Ray provided us with updates on the creation of the album, after all, there were also three songs in advance in the form of video singles (with download option as an audio file). These three tracks also form the start of the new album, which is now gradually arriving at the crowdfunders' homes since July and will be available in stores at the end of August.

The Weight Of Man is once again a nobly packaged album. It comes in a digibook. The artwork and design is by Luca Biondi and everyone is welcome to tell us what the motif on the cover is supposed to represent. What it actually is, Ray revealed this to us in the interview. But what he sees in it was something else again ...