A Promise Of Peace is a concept album about World War II. Normally we do not revue CD's which are not directly related to Pink Floyd or Roger Waters. But this album is definitely an exception in that it is so similar to Waters own ideals and style. At first listening A Promise of Peace sounded quite interesting. The lush layering of synthesizers and keyboards and the acoustic or rock style guitar, mixed with the very Watersesque sounding songs and sound effects were quite good. But I didn't like the vocals.
But then, upon the second listening, I realized how very Floyd and Waters like much of the album is done. As I listened even more intently, and after becoming accustomed to the vocals, I became enraptured by the words as well as the music.
The length of the album is quite long, at 77 minutes you definitely get your money's worth. The front and back cover is adorned by the British union jack (flag), and attached to the outside is a red plastic poppy. Inside are full lyrics and credits. Lee Saunders plays most of the synthesizers and keyboards as well as writing all the songs and lyrics.
The song listing is as follows;
Though lyrically the writing style is different, the similarities to the song writing style of Roger Waters is striking. The sound effects are superb. And, like both Roger and Pink Floyd, a female vocalist is used at times to compliment the vocals as well as a saxophone. What is really strange is that despite the similarity and resemblance in writing style and content to Rogers work, Mr. Saunders only recently began listening to Pink Floyd and Roger Waters, and didn't even know about the political undertones in Roger's writing. The parallelism of similar philosophies as well as writing styles without Lee Saunders being previously influenced by Roger's writing, is indeed a strange coincidence.
Lee Saunders' band who played on this album are:
Rob Boyce - Saxaphone
This album is simply superb! Lee Saunders is no Roger Waters, but his similar ideals and principals of peace, love, tolarance, and humanity, exceed even Rogers, and he is a man who walks his talk!! If you like the Waters style of music, you probably will love this album. As with many Pink Floyd albums, upon first hearing it I was not overly impressed, but after a few listenings the music and the words began to grow on me more and more and more. The whole album is so extremely well done that upon the third listening, I have fallen in love with it. The lead guitar is not played in the style of Dave Gilmour's but is still most of the time quite good. Had Roger and Dave done the vocals, and Dave done the guitar, this would undeniably be a Pink Floyd album of high caliber. Get this album and give it a listen, (or two or
three). If you're a Roger Waters fan you won't be disappointed.
"A Promise Of Peace" by Lee Saunders is available from Crystal Music International, and for more information contact either Adam Scott or Pat Hill at Crystal Music International, P.O. Box 2031, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 7HR, England.
This album is endorsed by the Royal British Legion, Sussex County, England, and a donation from each sale will be made to The Poppy Appeal, a charity working for world peace. (Consequently the plastic red poppy attached to the CD.)
1. Prelude
2. For a Thousand Years
3. The world Prepares
4. Soldier On Tom
5. Not Just a Phony War
6. Face the War Alone
7. Is This the Shape? Part l
8. Alone In the Dark
9. This Is the Shape Part ll
10. Reap the Whirlwind
11. Overlord
12. The Killing Grounds of Falaise
13. For all Our Tomorrow's
14. Poor Buggers Part l
15. Poor Buggers Part ll
16. Tomorrow's Going To Be a Lovely Day
Jon Harris - Bass, Guitars, and Programming
Chris Harvey - Keyboards and Orchestration
Mark Rathbone - Drums
Lee Saunders- Keyboards, Synthesisers, and Sampling
Neil Sherwood - Vocals and Accoustic Guitar
Nik Smith - Guitars, Sythesisers and Programming
Mark Worden - Guitars
Sharon Woolf - Vocals