Album review: PAUL GILBERT – I Can Destroy

In the Pete Feenstra Feature on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sunday 8 May 2016 at 20:00 GMT, Pete chatted to Paul Gilbert, with tracks from the album ‘I Can Destroy’.

More information

PAUL GILBERT – I Can Destroy

earMUSIC [Release date 27.05.15]

Paul Gilbert is a ‘guitarist’s guitarist’ who revels in a self penned musical hybrid shot through with intensity, precision and plenty of humour.

Produced by Kevin Shirley, ‘I Can Destroy’ is a big sounding album with enough of twists and turns to make Gilbert’s solos sound both dynamic and interesting.

The opening title track balances lyrical eclecticism with a poppy feel while his incredible chops help him forge his own style.

There are plenty of incendiary guitar breaks and harmony guitar parts, but he also demonstrates a lightness of touch which is almost playful at times. This aspect is offset by several complex moments that explore  rock,  pop, metal, blues as he cleverly balances the obtuse with the accessible.

‘I Can Destroy’ is full of diversity, a wide range of solos and an array of tone colours. He glues together all the elements on ‘One Woman Too Many’, which he tops with an incredible shred and a Theremin type outro, before slipping into some hard riffing and belligerent slide guitar on ‘One Woman Stop’.

The lyrical duality of the line ‘I Love Anything I Can Destroy’ is partially mirrored by the subtle dynamic tension between his exemplary playing and his pop sensibilities laced with multi tracked harmonies.

Gilbert doesn’t have the strongest of voices – he over compensates for this on the double-time title track with some deliberate gruff phrasing – but he’s smart enough to incorporate a series of clever vocal and guitar-led dynamics.

Both the title track and the acoustic pop of ‘The Love We Had’ references 10cc, while the latter finishes with some Beatles style harmonies on the chorus.

The restless feel of the album is evidenced by the way he suddenly ditches the stop-time Rory Gallagher influenced ‘I Am The One (Who Wants To Be With You’) for an intense high octane bluesy outro.

He uses poppy melodies and a catchy hook on ‘Make It (If We Try’), while on the album highlight, ‘I Will Be Remembered’ he combines great backing harmonies with a pop/rock format, couched in a bluesy groove that sounds very much like Todd Rundgren

And it’s this constant search for a catchy hook to match his licks that gives him real crossover potential, exemplified by the booming ‘call and response’ hook of the rock and roll work out ‘Gonna Make You Love Me’.

He saves his biggest impact for the bonus track ‘Great White Buffalo’ on a collision of understated power, song craft and intense guitar playing. The big crescendo on the outro is effectively a musical sleight of hand, as it suggests a succinct resolution to a bulldozer of an album, but ‘I Can Destroy’ has more depth than that.

It’s a frequently multi-layered and surprisingly diverse album full of magisterial guitar lines that constantly draws him into new musical avenues.

He’s at his best on the opening twist and turns of the clumsily titled ‘Everybody Use Your Goddamn Turn Signal’ and the high octane ‘One Woman Too Many’, while the poppy bluesy groove of ‘I Will Be Remembered’ is an example of an artist following his own musical path.

‘I Can Destroy’ reveals new nuances with repeated plays.  Paul Gilbert’s musical knowledge, breathless guitar playing and imaginative arrangements shape the  musical vision of a shredder with a penchant for real songs. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

Pete Feenstra presents his Rock & Blues Show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio every Tuesday at 19:00 GMT, and “The Pete Feenstra Feature” on Sundays at 20:00


Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Josh Taerk Sunday Sessions 2024

Latest session: Sunday 25 February
Next session: Sunday 14 April

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio



David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 March 2024.


UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 5 March 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com


Power Plays w/c 18 March 2024

GYPSY’S KISS We’ve Come To Play
FM Out Of The Blue (Frontiers)
SHOTGUN MISTRESS Shot Down (indie)
ATTIC THEORY Violent Delight (indie)
FLOYA Yume (FiXT)
SAHAJI Tell Me All Your Feelings (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 18 March 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 LEAVES’ EYES Myths Of Fate (AFM Records)
14:00-16:00 HOLLY LERSKI Sweet Decline (indie)


To see our Tweets you need to be logged in to a Twitter account



Popular (last 10 days)


This entry was posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply