This Philadelphia trio had made their marks with their 1998 debut From The Toybox where the band combined elements of pop, jazz and progressive rock. River To The Sea is their second album released on the band’s own label and follows the direction of the first. I always had a hard time getting into US pop/prog bands. Somehow the poppy side of the albums by these bands weakened the progressive parts in a way that had flatness as a result. Simon Apple is quite different. Pop songs are pop songs with a touch of prog and progressive songs are progressive with just a little taste of pop, and a touch of jazz (saxophone and bass).

After listening to the album for over ten times I still couldn’t figure out what I was going to write about it. At first listening you might find River To The Sea a little bit too poppy, but you will soon find out that the album features more than one fine song and that there is a lot to discover in the music.

Each song is very solidly structured and has its own distinctive feel.

The quality of the album is also guaranteed by the impressive list of eleven guest musicians among whom Tony Levin, John Helliwell and Buck Dharma. If that isn’t enough for you I should also mention that the mixing was done by David Leonard known form his work with Rush, Toto, Santana and others.

The only new member of Simon Apple is vocalist Dan Merrill who replaced John Feldman. Just listen to the track Hold Me and it immediately becomes clear why Simon Apple chose Merrill out of 800 demos the band had to go through finding a suitable replacement.

If this band interests you, don’t hesitate to visit their home page www.simonapple.com. There’s an excellent gallery where you can find handwritten documents that the guest musicians wrote to Simon Apple regarding their contribution to the album.