Edward Reekers - Child of the Water (2008)

1. Inside the Pain
2. Stop the Time
3. I Love You Anyway
4. Never a Moment
5. Belle of the Ball
6. Child of the Water
7. Breathe
8. Eyes Like Twins
9. When Wise Men Say
10. Strawberry Blonde
11. Long Ago, Far Away
12. The Best of Me


Sweet! – 7,8/10

Yeah… that pretty much sums up Edward Reekers third solo album and possibly even his character. As we all know from his vocal duties at Kayak, the man has the sweetest voice in all of Holland and certainly one of the most beautiful voices. It seems he is well aware of that and makes his solo material a bit more adept to the sweet sound. Even though it has been sixteen years since his previous solo full-length Stages, Child of the Water is without a doubt a Reekers album through and through and certainly is a better overall record than Stages.

At Kayak, he mostly gets to sing symphonic rock, which has become quite bombastic on their last two albums. To add the contrast, Reekers chose to maintain a more acoustic and intimate setting with the piano and acoustic guitar as the main instruments. Sometimes even recorders are heard where you would’ve expected a lead guitar or a synthesizer. He again distances himself from Kayak by not going symphonic at all. This album is full of these sweet songs with sweet little melodies that would remind slightly of Kayak’s Periscope Life, but this time it’s not as bad. Most songs really go by at ease without adding any tension for the listener. Reekers must watch out not to go auto-pilot too much at times, but vocally he’s done an amazing job at each and every track.

The album opens with “Inside the Pain”, which really sounds like an acoustic Kayak classic, mostly because it’s quite an adventurous song with inventive and tense melodies. Hearing this track, you’ll have high hopes for the following tracks, but with “Stop the Time” we already get a sign it might end differently. It’s a nice and poppy track with a nice saxophone-solo, but the melody in the chorus tends to get annoying after a while. The sweet poppy tunes continue with lead single “I Love You Anyway”. Possibly another highlight from this album it is, and that chorus is hard to forget. “Never a Moment” takes it easy and slow as our Kayak vocalist presents us another love song. Edward Reekers is quite a Romeo as he appears to have written some of the finest love lyrics I have heard; like this fragment from the waltz-like “Belle of the Ball”: ‘the stars were no match for the look in her eyes tonight’. Title track “Child of the Water” falls more under the same category as “Inside the Pain” with its enchanting melodies of both the vocals and the recorder. It is tracks like these that keep all songs together.

Next are two covers. “Breathe” is originally written by Ultravox-vocalist Midge Ure and Reekers’ version sounds very real. We never leave the acoustic setting, but it’s still true to the original. Amazing how Reekers uses his falsetto voice. “Eyes like Twins” was covered from Wilson Phillips, but I never heard that version. There’s a very good contrast between the verses and the more bombastic chorus. One of my favorites and another track to feature a great recorder melody is “When Wise Men Say”. I love it how this song stays very acoustic and intimate but yet contains such a powerful climax. The lyrics are also very strong with lines like ‘when wise men say this man arose from nothing but clay, our statue makes the day’. Back to sweet poppy tunes with the Pim Koopman-penned “Strawberry Blonde”. Since Koopman was very active in Kayak as well this song has somewhat of a Kayak-sound at some points, but it’s still very understandable why this was not included on a Kayak record. And then we conclude the album with “Long Ago, Far Away” and “The Best of Me”; two great ballads with both very enchanting melodies. You can’t deny Kayak influenced Reekers’ songwriting at least a little since Stages.

In short, Edward Reekers delivers a strong solo record. But why not a higher rating then? What the man released here is a good album, but is it really anything we’ve never heard before? I don’t think so. His solo records never tend to be groundbreaking in any form and I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to accomplish either. Still, I’d highly recommend this record to fans of his previous solo efforts and to fans of Kayak.

Strongest moments: “Inside the Pain”, “Child of the Water” and “When Wise Men Say”.