Following his acclaimed third solo album unsurprisingly titled '3', Sulton has just released a live album.
Kasim Sulton, in addition to his current activities of playing bass and support vocals for Blue Ӧyster Cult and Todd Rundgren, has a thriving solo career. Following his acclaimed third solo album unsurprisingly titled '3', Sulton has just released a live album.
His solo gigs are generally low production affairs – sometimes truly solo as in his recent UK tour, other times with electro-acoustic backing from two or three musicians. This album covers both formats; Sulton plays acoustic guitar or piano as appropriate and with his clear Tenor voice carries off the songs effortlessly. Delving into standout songs from the recent album, the Poppy '15 Minutes' works well with its Andy Warhol-esque view on fame, as does the plaintive 'God Of Low'.
As would be expected, there is also a nod to Sulton's Utopia past with 'Maybe I Could Change' sounding fantastic; one of Utopia's finest moments and probably a hard one to sing – anyway, Sulton nails it. The album ends with 'Set Me Free' which was Utopia's biggest hit back in 1980 and a natural and up-tempo closing to proceedings. I should also note that a portion of the album proceeds go to a child support charity, The My Stuff Bags Foundation.
Rob McKenzie