I wish this album were real, but it's just AI fan art

What you get when you cross Journey with Kansas

 

A.I. has finally gotten to the point where you can make realistic hybrids between pictures. These were made using the mixer function on an AI called Artbreeder. It actually allowed me to create an album cover and band pictures of the fictional mashup band Journsas.

The album cover image is what it gave me when I input Kansas Audio Visions and Journey Frontiers cover art minus the text.

The song titles and the names of the band members were not created using AI; I made those up the old fashioned way.

Apologies to the band members of the actual bands whose images and song titles were mashed up in the creation of this fan art.

Styx- Kilroy was Here, and Petra- Beat the System

In this post I'd like to discuss two early '80s albums that are among my favorites: Styx: Kilroy was Here (1983), and Petra: Beat the System (1984).

I've been thinking about these albums quite a bit lately, and how they compare and contrast with each other, and the more I think about them, the more similarities crop up between them, not just with the albums, but also with the circumstances in which they came about, both in society and in the bands which created them. They were both very much a product of their time, but coming from two different music scenes- one secular, and the other Christian.

I'll start by talking about the Styx album. I first purchased this album on cassette (used, of course) in 1995, over a decade after Styx's heyday. I became a fan of this band as a teenager during the time when they were still considered "washed up," having lost their record deal and broken up again after the brief partial re-union (sans Tommy Shaw) album and tour for Edge of the Century, and it would be another year before the release of their Greatest Hits album would set the stage for their resurgence as a popular classic rock touring act in 1996. So for me at that time, Styx, along with other '70s bands, helped to fulfill my desire to go against the wave of so-called "Alternative" Nirvana and Pearl Jam copycats and listen to music that was out of style, making it my own personal alternative.

When I first read the liner notes, I found the concept of this album fascinating- that of rock music fighting for survival in an Orwellian dystopia. I had a fairly good understanding of the "backmasking" controversy, and though it was no longer in the current media at the time, I was aware of the accusations against bands such as Led Zepplin of hidden evil messages. However, at the time I did not know that Styx in particular had been targeted in these accusations, and I thought that "Snowblind" from the Paradise Theater album was only controversial because of its reference to cocaine addiction. Though I knew about George Orwell's novel 1984 and recognized the literary reference, it was only much later that I would fully understand what had pushed Dennis DeYoung to create the concept for this record.

The opening track, "Mr. Roboto," was such a big, catchy hit that I was already familiar with it, if only peripherally, despite the fact that it had first come out when I was a little kid. But as a teenager, the lyrics spoke to me of dystopian reliance on technology and the resultant loss of humanity in our cultural soul- a point that becomes ever more relevant in today's politically polarized, social media saturated, smartphone-addicted world. On the musical side of things, the electronics-heavy style of the song was a departure from the Styx sound I was used to in previous albums such as The Grand Illusion.

While I was very impressed by the concept contained in the liner notes and first track, I found the remainder of the album to be an initial disappointment in a way, perhaps because Tommy Shaw and James Young were not fully on board with Dennis in what he wanted to do, and the result was a very discohesive record that took a really long time to grow on me. The contrast between tracks was jarring from one song to another. And to put it simply, some songs just didn't have the style I wanted to hear at the time. For example, "Heavy Metal Poisoning," which was JY's take on the whole immorality of rock music deal. The message in the lyrics was fantastic, but the bluesy groove of the song lacked the kind of guitar riff in the style of "Miss America" that I had hoped for. The Tommy and JY songs that became my favorites on this album were "Just Get Through this Night" and "Double Life," both of which accentuated the dark, rather film-noir atmosphere of this album, and were high points for me in the record, along with DeYoung's memorable pop ballad "Don't Let It End." But despite the discohesiveness of the album, it did eventually grow on me, becoming a classic for me, even if it did not rise to the stellar heights of its predecessor, Paradise Theater.

Now for my take on the Petra album. In contrast with Styx, Petra is really only a recent discovery for me. While I have long been aware of their existence, and particularly of their connections with the Elefante brothers, I never actually heard any of their music unitl just a couple of years ago, when I bought this tape (used, of course) at a thrift shop. Initially, I listened to it only once, reading along to the lyrics as I digitized the tape into mp3s, and though I thought the Christian lyrics were very good, I was not initially impressed with the music, because it was a different style from what I had expected. It wound up being relegated to the least-frequented folders of my mp3 collection, and there it remained for a good long time.

All that changed by a strange quirk of fate a few months ago, when, by chance, I was watching a DVD of "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey." The song that played at the end of the film was a fantastic-sounding rendition of "God Gave Rock and Roll to You." I loved it, and I was thinking, wait... wasn't that a Petra song? I went online to investigate, and found out that the song on the movie was actually recorded by Kiss. I was sorry to hear it wasn't Petra, but further investigation brought up a Youtube video of the "Classic Petra" reunion concert from 2011. I was very, very impressed by the show, and once I heard the live version of "Adonai," I was hooked. These songs were so good, they were right up there with all my favorite classic rock bands, and I was thinking, where have I been this whole time? Over the next few weeks, I bought that live album and DVD,  four more studio albums (primarily from the Greg X Volz era), and the 1986 VHS concert video. You might call that a little bit obsessive, and I guess you'd be right, but the band is that good.

This, of course, meant that my opinion of  Beat the System changed significantly once I gave it a few more listens, having become more familiar with the live versions of "Clean" and "Adonai." The whole album is excellent, once you get used to the generous helpings of synthesizers.  Volz's sometimes exaggerated, Rush-like vocal delivery on the first two songs seems like a distraction at first, but it fits them. "Computer Brains" made an impression on me at the very first listen, mainly for the lyrics. Incidentally, for some reason, my 4-year old daughter found that song frightening. "Clean" is a great straight-ahead, crowd-inspiring rocker. "Hollow Eyes" is very thought-provoking, along with "Voice in the Wind." The Christianized cover of Argent's "God Gave Rock and Roll to You," which is Petra's second take on the song, has an updated sound from the late '70s version, though I prefer the first one from Come and Join Us.  "It is Finished" contains a moving account of the Crucifixion."Adonai" is a gloriously soaring, Journey-esque rock anthem of holy praise. But for the comparative purposes of this blog post, the two songs I really want to talk about are the opening title track "Beat the System," and "Witch Hunt".

Before I go deeper into that, I want to mention that the idea for this blog post came to me after I played this album in the car, and my kids remarked that "Beat the System" sounded like "Mr. Roboto." I explained to them that it was from the same time period and used many of the same instruments.

However, as I considered it more, I began to see more parallels with the Styx song. For one thing, both Styx and Petra were falsely accused of recording evil messages in reverse in their songs in the "backmasking" controversy. It was dumb enough that people would accuse a straight-laced, relatively sober band like Styx, led in large part by devout Catholic family man DeYoung, of doing such a thing. But it was downright ludicrous that Petra, a committed Christian rock ministry whose every song was like a bible sermon, would have televangelist preachers praying for their downfall, simply because they played what some considered to be the devil's style of music. One member of Petra described in an interview how hurtful it was to hear of preachers who he admired turning against him. The false accusations led the band in 1982 to record a reverse message on the song "Judas Kiss" that said, "What are you lookin' for the devil for, when you oughta be lookin' for the Lord?" "Witch Hunt" addresses this controversy futher, making the point that people were being distracted from the real work of saving souls by wasting energy looking for evil where no evil really existed.

Both "Mr. Roboto" and "Beat the System" reflect a general pop-cultural fixation on Orwell's futurist novel. As the world approached the real year 1984, it was fashionable to comment on it in one way or another. Other musicians such as Billy Squier, Europe, and Van Halen, to name just a few, made references to the year in their music. You also had such things as the famous Apple Macintosh commercial, as society at that time reflected on whether the fictional totalitarian dystopia was in fact coming true in some ways. But while "Mr. Roboto" is more a straight-up commentary on fundamentalist religous opposition to rock music, "Beat the System" uses the Orwellian symbolism in a spiritual sense, of the blind leading the blind, and rebelling against the spiritual oppression of an ingnorant, sinful world. The songs have a similar rythm and overall style, and the repetitive falsetto phrase "Wise up, rise up" in the Petra song is as nearly as memorable (and annoying) as the "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" chant of the Styx song. Viewing the music video for "Beat the System" also brings to mind the recent stupidity of the viral "bird box challenge", as there is now an increasingly urgent need for the youth of the world to learn how to take off a blindfold.

While the musical and cultural similarities are interesting, it was even more interesting to consider the parallels in the careers of each band at the time. Both bands embarked on grueling, expensive, elaborate concert tours in support of their respective albums, which caused friction in the bandmembers' professional and personal relationships. Both bands' respective tours for each of these albums were filmed and recorded as live albums and concert videos. And both bands ended up fragmenting afterwards, with Petra singer Volz calling it quits over business disagreements, and Styx breaking up completely for more than half a decade.

All in all, these two albums, both of which took time to grow on me, present an interesting comparison, portraying the musical perspective on the controversies and culture of their time from the contrasting positions of the secular and the religious, and at the same time showing that the experiences of classic bands in two widely differing markets and environments could end up being remarkably similar.

Podcasts on web radio show "Please Leave A Message"

I recently collaborated with an old acquaintance, Richard McLean, on his podcast, "Please Leave A Message." He was looking for help on an episode when his planned guest had fallen through, so I volunteered. We did a skype call and I set up my microphone and laptop to record my side of the conversation, and then Richard mixed the two portions of the recording in post-production.

I wound up on two episodes of the broadcast.  On the first, I served as the co-host, and we discussed record collecting, and what I call the "gentrification of vinyl".    On the second episode, I got to be on the interview portion of the show.  Here are the links:

https://pleaseleaveamessage.simplecast.fm/14


https://simplecast.com/s/da9a14da

John Elefante: On My Way To The Sun

The subject of this post is the new John Elefante album, On My Way To the Sun, which was released earlier this year.  Readers may recall that a few years back I previously reviewed one of John’s older albums from the 90s, in keeping with the “retro” theme of my blog.  But this new record carries such an important message that I feel it deserves as much attention as it can get as soon as possible. So with this in mind, I’m adding my review to the pile, as a Latter-Day-Saint who likes Christian rock.

I have to disclose ahead of time that my opinion is unavoidably biased, because I helped in a small way to contribute to the album’s creation.  When I heard that John Elefante was soliciting online donations through Kickstarter to help fund his new record, I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to make a contribution.  She said, “Isn’t he the guy who did that song about finding God on Route 39?”  “Uh, yeah,” I replied. “Actually, it was Exit 39.”

So I made a donation.  It wasn’t a lot, just enough to qualify for the advance digital copy of the album, which I received about a week ahead of the official release.  In terms of production funding, my contribution was the equivalent of buying a couple of sandwiches for the musicians to munch on while they took a break from playing.

Well, that sandwich must have done some good, because the album sounds great!

On My Way To the Sun is John Elefante’s follow up to 2009’s Revolution of Mind.  Unlike that project, which was actually a reunion album for John’s late 80s Christian metal band, Mastedon, this album features a different line-up of musicians.  Many of the songs rock just as hard as on the previous record, but it skews slightly toward the modern rock sound in places, instead of the more predictable melodic hard rock of Mastedon.  At first I was a bit disappointed, because I was hoping for another Mastedon project, or perhaps another album like 2000’s Defying Gravity. However, I eventually realized that certain songs on this album, especially one in particular, more than make up for any variation in musical style, and deep down this album is about the message, not so much the music.

The opening track, “This is How the Story Goes” starts off the album with some great layered harmony vocals.  John Elefante has always been good at self-harmonizing on overdubs, and this is the best example yet.  In my opinion he ranks right up there with greats like Brad Delp and Freddie Mercury in vocal multi-tracking, except John has the added advantage of not being dead :)

This song is also one the most “Kansas” sounding of John’s work to date, and along with “One Day Down By The Lake” from the previous album, shows that John wisely knows where a lot of his fan base comes from, which are the diehard Kansas fans like myself.  The instrumental portions of the song are an excellent imitation of Kerry Livgren’s progressive rock style, to the point where you can almost close your eyes and pretend you are listening to an outtake from Vinyl Confessions.  This illusion is heightened by the fact that John actually hired current Kansas guitarist Rich Williams and violinist David Ragsdale to play on this song.  The vocal melody, however, is unmistakably John Elefante’s own style, giving the song a sort of hybrid quality.  The message in the lyrics is also very inspiring, about finding life and redemption in Christ in the face of sickness and death.

The next song, “Where have the Old Days Gone” is a heavier, more modern-rock sounding tune that conveys a simple message about the innocence society has lost, and bringing back the Christian values that are lacking in this day and age. 

The title track to the album follows, with an upbeat, catchy melody and infectious vocal and guitar harmonies that complement the lyrics well. The themes explored in this song are somewhat reminiscent of “Exit 39” from Defying Gravity, but here this song deals more directly with the idea of receiving the satisfaction and peace in life that can only come from God, and not from worldly achievements.

“All I Have to Do” is another heavy modern rock song, rich in metaphors and elements of poetic stream-of-thought dealing with the confusion and constant change of living in the last days.  This is followed up by “The Awakening”, which features more great vocal harmonies and a memorable chorus, and paints a picture of the joy and beauty that await Christ’s people at the time of His coming, and the need for all nations to believe and prepare before it is too late.

Just when you think the harmonies and choruses can’t get any catchier, “Half the Way Home” comes in, with a toe-tapping beat and guitar riff that propel the tune along. The lyrics work well with the music to remind the listener of the speed at which life moves, and the need to live a Christ-centered life and make the best of the time we are given without regrets and without looking back.

Things relax a bit with “We All Fall Short”, which makes good use of strings and a more acoustic arrangement, before picking up again with the steady mid-tempo rock sound of “Don’t Hide Away”.  Both songs touch on the theme of letting your light shine and standing strong against the world instead of sitting on the fence.

And now we come to the big one, “This Time”.  You need to hear this song, and you need to see the video. (I’m providing the YouTube link at the end of this article.)  And once you’ve seen the video, you need to share it.  John Elefante goes out on a limb with this song to tell a very personal story: about how his adopted daughter’s life was saved because her birth mother changed her mind and decided not to abort.  This is a very emotional story that really struck a chord with me because I have three [2017 update: make that five] small children of my own, and I can’t imagine life without any of them.  I also personally know several couples that are heartbroken because they have been unable to have children of their own, or have lost a baby.  Yet they have to jump through hoops and play the waiting game and go to great expense for the chance to adopt a child.

People in the media are calling “This Time” ‘controversial’ and ‘provocative’, as if there was something wrong with advocating the idea of choosing to put a baby up for adoption instead of aborting her.  There are no sign-waving protesters in this song, no grisly imagery or genocidal metaphors, no political buzzwords or angry slogans.  Just a pregnant young woman who listens when the Lord says, “You’re not taking her, this time.”  So why is this song sparking such a firestorm of opposition and contention?

I think the reason is because it exposes Satan’s lies about “choice”.  Satan’s idea of “choice” is being able to do anything you want, except for what is right!  And when somebody actually chooses what is right, it makes the wicked upset because it exposes the lies, and the truth cuts them right to the heart.  Satan’s path only leads to captivity, and ultimately spiritual death, by promoting only choices that take away the opportunity to do what is right in the future.  But choosing God’s plan grants us more freedom, to make more choices that lead to liberty and eternal life. (See Galatians 5:1 and Deuteronomy 30:15. For the Latter-Day-Saint reference on this, see 1 Nephi 16:2 and 2 Nephi 2:25-27)

The story told in “This Time” is a powerful example of what happens when someone makes the right choice and listens to the Lord—in this case a whole lifetime of opportunity and potential happiness was granted to a baby and to the loving parents who adopted her.  Hopefully with God’s help through people like you and me, as many people as possible will hear this song and make the right choices to save innocent lives.

The album concludes with “Confess”, a tune that had been left off of John’s previous record and then updated for this release.  This song is a relaxed easy-listener with a simple, no frills evangelical message of praising and accepting Christ. After the emotionally taxing subject matter of “This Time”, “Confess” is a welcome break and a fitting end to the album.

All in all, On My Way to the Sun is an excellent album, with impeccable production and memorable, catchy and listenable songs.  While some of us fans may have initially hoped for a repeat of the previous record, what we got instead was something fresh, new, and powerful.  This album serves as a reminder that when it comes to inspirational Christian music, sometimes God gives us what we need to hear instead of what we want to hear, and the world will be a better place because of it.

Justin Utley- "Runaway" (2005)

The year was 2002.  The occasion was a combined talent show for several LDS congregations of young single adults in the Salt Lake City area, and as I watched the usual variety of artists perform, one act among the finalists took the stage and blew away the competition.  The song was called "Shades of Gray" and so was the band, and the singer-songwriter in command was Justin Utley.

At the time, Justin had already made some indie releases for the local Mormon contemporary market, and he was starting to become well-known for his ability as a singer and an actor.  As expected, the band rocked the house, and if I remember correctly, they won first place.

I had a chat with Justin after the show and congratulated him on his work.  Justin and I had attended the same high school in the mid 90s, and though I didn't know him very well, we knew a lot of the same people.  In fact his first band, Almost August, featured some of the same personnel who played in my sister's band, Euphoria.  Justin seemed pleased to talk to somebody who remembered him from high school, and after we caught up on a few things, he gave me the URL for his website where he later posted some demos for his upcoming album.  One of them was "Shades of Gray", and the other was an acoustic demo called "This Time".

Well, a decade has passed since then, and I finally got ahold of Justin's first nationally distributed album, which came out in 2005 and is entitled "Runaway".  My apologies for taking so long, but my to-buy list gets ever longer and my music budget gets ever smaller.  Justin has since released a follow-up CD entitled "Nothing This Real", but this review will focus on the first of the two.

Despite our shared roots, Justin Utley's path has diverged significantly from my own.  We both moved hundreds of miles away from our hometown in Utah, but the similarities end there.  Justin relocated to the fast-paced east-coast world of New York City, spending his nights in front of a microphone and singing rock and roll to a steadily growing number of fans in pubs and clubs. I, on the other hand, ended up in the quiet, cotton farming bible belt town of Lubbock, Texas, spending my nights in front of a microscope, and singing little more than lullabies to a steadily growing number of small children.   Our paths could not be more different.

Some years ago when I first found out that Justin had come out as a homosexual and left the LDS church, I didn't know what to think.  It came as a big shock, but it was actually more of a shock to to me hear that he had chosen to leave the church, than it was to hear that he was gay.  I wondered how someone who had sung so many faith-inspiring songs in his career could decide to quit the church like that.

Since then, with both the church and the gay community getting a lot of attention in the press,  I've read a lot of articles and opinions, and I've come to understand a little bit more about some of the internal and external conflicts that face homosexuals in the LDS church.  And since Justin Utley is an artist who sings from the heart, some of those conflicts show through in this album.

But back to the music. Overall, the most noticeable thing about "Runaway" is Justin's singing.  He's got a great voice and conveys a tremendous amount of feeling, and makes excellent use of subtle nuances in his vocal delivery to add power and emphasis to his words, but without letting the style overwhelm the message.  The production is very clean and modern, without being too over-produced.

The lyrics, too, are packed with layers of meaning, and though I can't make them all out exactly (the Amazon MP3 edition doesn't come with a lyric sheet) I can tell that Justin is speaking his mind.

The album's opening track, "Room to Breathe" kicks off the album with a syncopated beat, a very pop sound mixed with rock guitars.  The words to the song convey a feeling of struggle and it's easy to guess that it probably has to do with Justin's experiences with the church.  The song sets the tone for an album that conveys a multitude of feelings through the course of the tracklist.

The next song, "Goodbye, Goodbye", has a similar beat to the opening track, energetic and radio-friendly, with some ambiguity to the lyrics-- is it about Justin's relationship with the church, or about a personal relationship, or both?  To the average listener it won't matter; it's a good song no matter what it is about.

The album slows down a bit for the next track --"Little White Lies", which has a bit more bluesey feel to it.  Then the pop beat returns for title track,  "Runaway", which continues with the overall lyrical theme of personal struggle.  "Crash & Burn" is a slightly more laid back, acoustic-based track with an arrangement and delivery that emphasizes the highs and lows in the lyrical subject matter.

With the next song, "Let Me Go", from the drum intro at the start it is easy to tell this song has more of a "classic rock" beat compared to the radio-oriented pop of the earlier tracks, that fits the lyrics well with a good dose of percussion and electric guitar riffs, but still restrained enough to keep the attention of the listener where it belongs on the vocals.  This is followed up by "Hold you", another high-energy rock track.

Things cool down again for the next song, "Missing you now" which returns to a more mid-tempo pop sound with the same sort of radio-friendly feel of the opening tracks.  If "This Time" had been included on this CD instead of the next one, this would have been a good place in the track order for it.

Next comes "Shades of Gray". To my ears, this recording sounds identical to the 2002 demo that Justin had posted for download all those years ago, remastered perhaps, but showing no obvious signs of re-recording or re-mixing.  Which is okay, since it had a very polished sound to begin with. Although there is a slight noticeable difference in arrangement and style from the more recent songs, it would not be obvious to the average listener who isn't aware that it was recorded years before the others.  Perhaps because of its origin as part of a band project, this song out of all of them also has the most "rock band" sound to it as opposed to the solo popsinger-songwriter aspect of the rest of the album.

When I first heard this song live, I didn't have a clue what it was about. All I knew was it was a great song, and that Justin had assembled an awesome band around him to play it.   But all these years later in retrospect, some of the words suddenly become crystal clear, and I can get a pretty good idea of what kind of internal struggles Justin was dealing with.  I don't pretend to understand all of it, but I can imagine some of what he must have been feeling and empathize with it.  I can't say if I would have made the same choices in his place, because I'm not him. But songs like this give at least a glimpse into where Justin is coming from.  After all, don't we all have our own "shades of gray" to deal with?

The album closes out with "The Apology (Wherever You Are)".  It is a simple track with just piano and vocals. I can't make out 100% of the lyrics, but it sounds to me like this song is almost a farewell to Justin's former life and existence in the Mormon church, looking back at his past and seeking reconciliation with the present.  When I heard the simple melody and arrangement, an old memory was awakened, and in my mind I was transported back to an LDS seminary classroom in our hometown of Magna, Utah over 15 years ago, where I saw Justin give a solo performance of one of his church-oriented songs for his classmates. The piano that day was so loud I couldn't understand a word he was singing, but I could tell he was putting his heart and soul into it, and I knew that it had to be about something that had deep meaning and importance to him.

Now with this album Runaway, I can tell that Justin continues to put his heart and soul into his music, in a well-produced and excellent sounding record with powerful lyrics and strong commercial appeal.

It was an interesting experience to review this album, and I feel simultaneously like both an insider and an outsider.  An insider because I knew Justin and his early work when we were growing up, and an outsider because he now plays to a different crowd, as part of a community that I'm not well-acquainted with, whose political and social belief system is vastly different, and at times diametrically opposed, to my own.  But despite these differences, I wish Justin good luck and professional success in the future.  Perhaps our diverging paths will cross again someday.

How I found God while listening to Def Leppard

I have re-written and simplified this post, and re-published it on a different blog.  Please go to the following link: 

http://mikespersonalopinions.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-i-found-god-in-def-leppard-song.html

Tyketto: Strength in Numbers (1994)

Well, here's this year's post. It seems like life has kind of just flown by, and I decided I needed to get back to my hobby of listening to music. The album for tonight is Strength in Numbers by Tyketto. I've been thinking about this album a bit lately and decided to dig it up from my mp3 archive.

I'll start with the nostalgia bit: I first became acquainted with Tyketto via a bootleg tape I got from my brother who got it from a friend of his. So when I found a new tape of this, their second album, at Starbound back in '94 I snapped it right up. I remember cranking it up on the beat up speakers I had mounted up on my bedroom wall. Then after High School I kind of forgot about it until the summer of '04 when I rediscovered it and listened to it while I would go running in the mornings. Since then it's been on and off of my playlist but it's always been a favorite.

For those who don't know who Tyketto is, you should. Tyketto is a fantastic east-coast hair band from the early '90s who put out their first album "Don't Come Easy" in 1990 to critical acclaim but it was a bit of a commercial disappointment so not as many people in the USA know about them. The rest of the story you can look up on Wikipedia and I won't waste my breath on a bio.

Strength in Numbers was their 2nd album, which was released in 1994 after a bit of a delay, on a different label from the first, and featured a different bass player. But the core members including Danny Vaughn on lead vocals and Brooke St James on guitar were still there, and the sound of this record is very much a continuation of their style from the first. The impression I get is this band sounds very confident, both in their playing and songwriting. There's an honesty in this album that was hard to find in the mid 90s when everyone was trying to compete with grunge, and I commend these guys for sticking to their guns and releasing a real rock record with no attempt to change their style, playing the music the way it should be played.

The opening title track of the album starts of energetically, with Vaughn's vocal delivery sounding like a cross between Jimi Jamison and a pack of snarling wolves. (Ok I admit it, I wrote this entry partly just so I could say that.) Maybe I'm unduly influenced by the cover art on that point. But the sound has a great balance between the very low bass, the guitar riffs, drums and vocals. The whole record has a very polished sound and it carries through all of the songs.

Track two- "Rescue me" is another up tempo song with more great guitar riffs and excellent backing vocals that really enhance the chorus. The use of backing vocals on this record really lends a fulness to the overall production, again, expertly placed like all the sound elements on this album.

Track three- "End of Summer Days" is a mid-tempo ballad that moves along nicely and provides a good example of the country-tinged rock sound that in my opinion should have been the natural direction that rock music ought to have taken in the 90s. The lyrics of this track bring to mind universal themes of longing for lost love and summertime home-town experiences that I find easy to relate to. Plus the beat of this song is easy to dance to, it could have been a real crossover hit.

"Catch My Fall" continues the laid back mid-tempo neo-country feel with heavier guitars and more of those fantastic backing vocals. The album then takes an unplugged turn with "The Last Sunset", a classic storytelling song that chronicles a man escaping and settling in Mexico, slowly revealing that he's a wanted bank robber, who finally gives up on running and enjoys one more sunset while waiting for the police to come.

While I don't have time to do a full track by track, and I can't personally endorse the lyrics on every single song (that's up to the individual listener when it comes to hard rock music) this album has a lot of good songs and no filler, musically.

Another of the highlights of this record for me is "Meet Me in the Night", which has one of those clean pop guitar picking riffs in the opening and a gradual buildup of sound that I personally love to listen to just for the way it sounds structurally.

Towards the end of the album comes "Inherit the Wind" which has a cool intro, a similar beat to "Rescue me" and again showcases Danny Vaughn's vocal delivery in a way similar to the opening track.

The final track of the album, a remix of "Standing Alone" from the first album featured some re-recorded guitars and vocals and added a nice touch to one of their best ballads which made for a very good single to re-introduce the band to casual listeners. This song has a lot of meaning for me and was one of the songs that helped me through some of the loneliest times in my life, and is part of the reason I still listen to this band while other heavy metal bands fell by the wayside.

Rumor has it that Tyketto is finally working on an all- new album after all these years and I'm really looking forward to it.