(graphic used with permission)

1. Hail Mary 2. Genuine 3. Pull That String 4. Bone Daddy 5. Midnight Rose 6. Waiting (You're All I Need) 7. I Get the Picture 8. Falling 9. My My 10. Sin City 11. In This World

Former Spin Doctors guitarist Eric Schenkman teams up with veteran drummer Corky Laing (Mountain) and bassist Noel Redding (Hendrix), with mixed results on the new album "Speed of Thought", released on the Lightyear label.
Kudos to the Toronto-based group Cork for recognizing what they do best, and focusing on that, on the new recording "Speed of Thought". Both members of the duo, guitarist Eric Schenkman (Spin Doctors) and drummer Corky Laing (Mountain) are dyed-in-the-wool rockers, and have recorded an album that unabashedly points back to the heyday of arena rock in the mid-1970's. They've even gone so far as to hire the former bassist of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Noel Redding, who contributes on several tracks. What is less clear about "Speed of Thought", however, is if it can be considered good classic rock.
Cork rocks, that much is very clear. The fat grooves laid down by Laing and Redding (who only appears as a bassist on three tracks) are solid throughout "Speed of Thought", and Schenkman's guitar work is impressive; interesting, while not being particularly flashy. It is the real groove of the music that carries some of the weaker material on the recording.
And, a lot of the material here is fairly weak. Cork seems to be a band desparately in need of a strong songwriter. The hooks and lyrics are so cliché on many of the songs on "Speed of Thought", they often feel almost like tongue-in-cheek parodies of classic rock tunes. While there are certainly bright moments; on "Falling", a tune in which the band wisely pares away some of the excessive vocals and guitar tracks that burden the bulk of the album, Cork sounds vibrant and great, these moments just seem too few and far between.
A couple of the major flaws in the album could have been avoided if the band had hired a strong producer. Such a producer would never have let Corky Laing lend his distinctive snearing baritone voice to ten of the album's eleven tracks, often as a lead vocalist. Laing's is the sort of voice that could be used effectively on one track on an album; any more would become tedious and grating. The other problem is the running times of some of the catchier tunes on "Speed of Thought" clock in at around five minutes, when they could have easily been trimmed by a minute each to make them more appealling to classic rock radio. In addition, many of the tunes are cluttered up with unneccessary guitar and vocal harmony tracks, that weigh the music down (and make them impossible to replicate live with a small group).
Cork is a band that shows promise. Each member of the band has proven, through their performances in other groups, that they can rock with the best of them. "Speed of Thought", though, doesn't have the songs, or the direction, that will bring them international acclaim.
-Dan Cross