Moving to the Moon is a solo album from journeyman bass player Mark Clarke, most famous for being a member of Coliseum, Uriah Heep and Natural Gas. It took over forty years as a professional musician to get around to releasing his debut solo effort. This is perfect example of something being worth the wait.

Clarke is a unique songwriter mixing, pop with prog in a way that reminds one at times of the Who and other times John Wetton. “One of These Days” is perfect mix of Who meets Wetton, as a matter of fact. Clarke set out to release a true classic rock album and he has succeeded. This is a breath of fresh air as the songwriting is crisp, the lyrics thoughtful and the vocals and musicianship sublime yet stirring, a very tough combination to achieve. “Heaven and Hell” and “The Falling” are the best tunes on the album. If this was 1975 both would be instant FM radio classics.

Moving to the Moon is throwback album to a time when the artist cared what an entire album sounded like. It is a return to a time when pride was taken at an entire work and not just a pop single to make money or score chicks.

Perhaps record company executive Dean Sciarra of Mark’s label, ItsAboutMusic.com said it best when he noted, “From the opening track right through to the closer this album begs to be listened to over and over again and even memorized note for note. I've had the pleasure of hearing it more times than most people would hear almost anything in their collection and it keeps getting stronger with each listen. We're very proud to be the exclusive distributor of this album from one of the nicest and most talented guys in the world.”

This one truly gets better with each listen until each song is burned into your brain. A true tip of the hat to Mark Clarke for allowing his music to see the light of day as this album will be sure to brighten anyone’s mood that hears it.