I have no idea why I'm thinking this, but something about the name of this album has me thinking Gene Clark is some shmoozy lounge singer. To my knowledge I've never heard of Gene Clark so I have no clue what type of music he does. Maybe it's just the name that's driving me nuts. It sounds rather snooty.
Oh... Between that first paragraph and this one I looked up Gene Clark because it occurred to me that "Gene" isn't necessarily a man's name and I might need to modify everything I said. I wound up reading that Gene Clark is actually one of the founding members of The Byrds. So this probably won't be a lounge album.
The album opens with "Life's Greatest Fool", a somewhat generic country rock track. It's better than what passes for country these days. Gene Clark has a plain tenor voice and doesn't use a stereotypical country accent. He also isn't talking about nameless "girls" and drinking while listening to "Free Bird". "Silver Raven" takes a few cues from psychedelia and blues. Both tracks feature backing vocals from a somewhat shrill chorus. I wish that wasn't there.
The title track features some powerful dark keyboards tracks giving it a smoky funk vibe. It's a smooth shift in mood from the folksy attitude of the first two songs. "The Strength of Strings" opens with a 2-minute largely instrumental passage. It makes for a conflicted moment when Gene Clark starts singing and I realize I don't really like his voice. He does have some sort of accent that's hard to place, and he strains to reach higher notes. He's not an awful singer, just not particularly great either.
No Other has a lovely full soft-rock sound. Unfortunately the songs are a bit long and don't carry much energy. I did like it even if it nearly lulled me to sleep. 3 stars.
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