by Stewart Mason
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Rick Kelly revisits some earlier material on 2005's All the Pretty Lights, Vol. 1. This isn't quite a remix album, in that Kelly doesn't do anything radically different to these songs; instead, they're simply extended versions of the original songs, with the grooves elongated artfully with subtle repetition and rearranging. The songs all come from his first two albums, Soul Ballet and Trip the Night Fantastic, barring two brief linking tracks, "The Revolution/Make the Music Louder" and "Pretty Lights." Together, this album is a fine précis of Kelly's sound: smooth, predominately instrumental music (with occasional and unobtrusive vocals) with light jazz and R&B elements that never quite tips over into unobtrusive elevator music. All the Pretty Lights, Vol. 1 is a fine introduction to Soul Ballet, but for all but the most passionate fan of this sort of thing, it's also a good stopping point.