Ear candy abounds starting with the Journey-esque Raised on Radio styled "Until The Dawn". The keyboard part is right out of Be Good To Yourself. The intro to "End of A Dream" recalls Tesla's Love Song or Just Take My Heart by Mr. Big. It then breaks open into a heartfelt rocker about broken dreams. Zadra straps on an acoustic guitar for "Shattered Lives", a mesmerizing tune that bursts out with big choruses and large easy to sing hooks. There is a real organic quality to this music. You can imagine these tracks performed live, like on the next song, the sentimental power ballad "Found You Now". This is throwback music with new twists and turns.
"Right In Front of You" borrows it's opening hook from Bon Jovi's "She Don't Know Me", but then settles into a less derivative melody while holding on to that familiar keyboard part. This sounds like August Zadra on lead vocals. His stints playing the Tommy Shaw parts in Dennis DeYoung's band have more than prepared him for this moment. "Must Have Been" sounds like an unreleased Steve Perry song. The instrumentation here is SO Journey you might wonder if the actual band might want to steal it. Rudy's vocal chops shine brightly as he attempts to replicate The Voice. "Pick Her Lies" is yet another well written song that starts acoustic and progresses into a powerful mid-tempo rocker with soulful guitar leads. I can almost hear Max Carl (Former .38 Special) singing this one.
"Inside Your Head" is a rocker that mixes Cheap Trick and Styx and is instantly singable. These guys have fully developed songwriting ideas that are completely unique. Many bands would work at it for years before creating this caliber of original music. "Make It Better" is another catchy mid-tempo rocker with a nod toward Jimmy Barnes or John Cafferty. "Love You Forever" is a super soulful ballad that pilfers from the likes of Journey and Michael Bolton. These are songs that will stand the test of time. "One More Round" is your last call song on this collection, although the band offers up an acoustic rendition of "Found You Now" as kind of a bonus track. "One More Round" puts and exclamation point on an already superb group of well constructed songs.
As much as this is a rock album, it's also a pop record in the old tradition. Traditionalists will feel very comfortable putting these songs on a mix CD with their well worn favorites from days gone by. This album is a repeat player. There is nothing but net here. Sweet harmonies, feel good songwriting and top notch musicianship. Waiting For Monday has been well worth the wait.
Album rating is a 9.0
I've also enjoyed the first several tracks released from this forthcoming album thus far, as it really hits all the integral classic melodic rock sweetspots. Precise vocals, guitars and keyboards, and as for August Zadra, I had the great pleasure of catching him alongside Dennis DeYoung in concert about a year and a half ago. Yes, he admirably captured the essence, heart and musical spirit of vintage
ReplyDeleteT. Shaw while simultaneously coming across as his own man. Not to mention, the overall production was far closer to peak period Styx
versus today's lukewarm, spinning keyboard incarnation! (And as a
longtime fan of L. Gowan as a solo artist, glad to see that he's had
some 'success' with that motley crew(!!) over the past twenty years,
but his first four solo albums, all released between 1982-1990 are a
much better musical representation of his diverse talents).
I know the folks in Canada love Lawrence. I just think there were better replacements available or how about not replacing Dennis at all.
ReplyDeleteOh, I haven't been interested in Gowan since he transferred into the easy-listening friendly Lawrence Gowan circa late 1993 and sort of became an acoustic-guitar-toting balladeer. When that ultimately failed, he jumped at the Styx golden parachute and has (quite understandably) not let go since. Totally unbelievable that Mr. DeYoung
ReplyDeletewas ultimately booted out of his own band and that so many of his classic tracks have been omitted from 'Styx' concerts over the past
twenty years, regardless of "Mr. Roboto's" long-overdue return in the summer of 2018. Of course, it never should have been dropped in the first place. Wankers!! Plus, you're absolutely right that there were/are much better/more suitable replacements out there.