Band:
Chris Ousey - Vocals
Gary Sharpe - Guitars
Phil Brown - Bass
Steve Gibson - Drums
Rik Carter - Keyboards
Discography:
Heartland (1991)
Wide Open (1994)
III (1995)
Bridge Of Fools (1997)
Miracles By Design (1998)
When Angels Call (1999)
As It Comes (2000)
Communication Down (2002)
Move On (2005)
info:
All songs produced, engineered and mixed by Jimbo Barton
except tracks 3, 4, 8,and 10 which were mixed by Julian Mendelsohn
guests
George Deangelis - keyboards
David Hinson - keyboards
Don Snow - piano & backing vocals
Steve Ferrara - drums
Carol Kenyan - backing vocals
Sylvia Mason James - backing vocals
Paul Moggledon - backing vocals
Omar Dupree - backing vocals
Stephen P. Clisby - backing vocals
Julia Loko - backing vocals
Jody Pijper - backing vocals
Released 12/9-2011
Reviewed 28/9-2011
Links:
yesterrock
Musically it should not come as any surprise that it is melodic rock or so called AOR, with prominent keyboards, catchy choruses and a very melodic disposition. The production is polished and the vocalist is mainly singing in the higher notes. I would say that it is quite typical AOR music, no real surprises in the songs. The album can be said to belong in the classical AOR style, no fancy tricks or innovative things are offered by the band just straight to the point melodic rock music. There are ten track on the album and these ten tracks will require around 44 minutes to play.
I must say that this album is quite underwhelming, there is no song that grabs me even just a little bit, nothing to hold my attention to it. The songs are all alright and the melodies work okay but the real problem with this album is that we have heard this music so many times before that you have to be at least somewhat special to make any kind of impression and that is something which cannot be said about Heartland. Their songs are as I said alright but there production is not really as good as the american bands of the era, the songs are not good enough and they don’t have that special singer that is also needed to really make an impression, it just ends up being an alright album. And I think this was also the case when this album was released, it is just not special enough.
The band went on to follow this album up with several more and maybe one of those were very good, this album despite being said to be one of the best melodic rock albums from the UK is just not good enough. There is nothing major that is the matter with it, but the little things makes it feels kind of daft, it just feels like there is something missing from this album and it just cannot make enough of an impression to stand out in the overpopulated crowd that is the melodic rock or AOR genre.
So in the end I have just heard the most uninteresting album I have received so far from Yesterrock, it just doesn’t do anything for me. Just 44 minutes of okay music to fill an empty audio space, nothing more.
HHHHHHH
