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JOHN KEANE | Straight Away | (Songhaus Music, 1999)

Straight Away / Red Raven / We Love our Fantasies / Venice Is Sinking / After Dark / She Can Not Be Denied / Love Is The Last Frontier / Headlines And Deadlines / Darkside Of The Earth / Since I Met You / Still / More

This CD must have been written and recorded with me in mind. This CD will end up on my "Top 10" of 1999. I can already say that much. Once in a while some record pops up which you really never expected much from, but holy moley, this one's a corker! Session player John Keane (has played on gazillions of Westcoast-records over the years) delivers probably the coolest album this year. It's experimental, it's hook-laden, and most of all, it is a very modern sounding record all the same!
This is one of those records that manage to mix just about everything you care about in music, but this is due to utterly brilliant musicianship and songwriting skills I believe. With the help from Buzz Feiten, Ted & Michael Landau, Tim Pierce, to name a few, John has managed to record a darned fine album, which mixes Gabriel, Sting, Police, Toto, Toy Matinee and 3rd Matinee, on a blissful piece of plastic.
The modernity comes to to clever arrangements with ambient drums and sorts of noises. As for the songs, the title track, the hit-potential "After Dark", "She Can Not Be Denied" and "Love Is The Last Frontier" are immediate faves. Give the disc another spin or two and find a goldmine in "Darkside Of The Earth", "Venice Is Sinking" and "Still". Pure bliss! The Mr Mister-like (Pull-era) "Red Raven" is glued to my brain and refuses to let go, "We Love Our Fantasies" is another. Geez, maybe I should stop now, cause I need to give the CD another spin, and so should you! Magic!

Review by: Larry

THE KEY | The World Is Watching | (MTM Music, 1997)

Down We Go / Freedom Calling / The Caretakers Of The Garden / Lonely As The Rising Sun / Wanted You To Be The One / The American Dream / The Love We Had / I'll Always Be There / The World Is Watching / Love Leads Us On

I have to admit that I haven't given this one too many spins. It's not because that it's particularly bad. Mainly because it's just so plainly boooooring.
The first time I played it, it almost felt like jogging around the local lake of Korsträsk (which is approx. 12 kilometres, so you'll get the picture, don't you?). The only thing that can be looked upon as funny is the inclusion of a bonus track.
The overall feeling I still have is that everything just disappears in a big blur.
Vocalist Billy Sherwood shouldn't do this kind of hardrock albums.
He was a lot cooler in World Trade.
The world is definitely not listening.

Review by: Stefan

KHARMA | Wonderland | (MTM Music, 2000)

Free Yourself / Wonderland / Knowing You / Burn Forever / In Chains / Standing Alone / Part Time Lovers / Angel Eyes / Ray Of Sunshine / Spell On You / Don't Close Your Eyes / Hold On / Wings Of History

Wondeful! New Swedish act, Kharma, has recorded one of the finer AOR/pomp-albums from these regions! Very much in the vein of Kansas, The Light, etc. Fabulous singing from Göran Edman as always when he fills his lungs. Great songwriting courtesy of Dragan Tanaskovic & Atilla Szabo (with Edman adding lyrics I assume) all the way through, too, and songs like the very AOR-ish "In Chains" (actually very Survivor-meets-Kansas-esque!), the brilliant title track, "Ray Of Sunshine" (which sounds a LOT like Livgren's AD with flute and all!) or "Standing Alone" should be reason enough to order yourself a copy of this release. Pronto!

Review by: Larry

KICK | Consider This... | (Beast Records, 1999)

Up Close & Personal / Children of the Sun / Consider This... / Blue / Victory Dance / Let's Make Love Tonight / Another Crazy Summer Night / Breathless / Whispers in the Dark / Streets of Shame / Bird of Paradise / Blue (Reprise)

Usually I start my reviews off with an introduction of where the band is from, how many albums they have released etc, but honestly, I know nothing about Kick. So, I guess I'm going to have to let the music do the talking and I must admit - there's some impressive AOR here that will please a lot of people.

Things get underway with the rocker "Up Close & Personal" which has a funky guitar riff throughout the song (it has a Kingofthehill or Sons of Angels type vibe to it), but the backing vocals are very much like Def Leppard. Vocally, Nick Workman sounds like Mark Free at times and I could see Unruly Child doing this song on their debut. "Children of the Sun" is an AOR number with some clever guitar work by Chris Jones. Again, very much in the Unruly Child vein. "Blue" is a decent piano ballad and at the end of the cd they have another version of the song with no guitars, just the piano. It reminds me of how Aerosmith did that with their hit "Don't Want to Miss A Thing." "Lets Make Love Tonight" is a slower number that sounds like Def Leppard (especially the backing vocals) and is slow moving throughout the song aside from the lead guitar work - which kicks in now and again. Other highlights include: "Whispers In the Dark" (another piano ballad) & "Bird of Paradise" where they bring back some of that high-energy funk that they do so well.

Overall, this is a solid release and it's worth giving a listen. All members of the band are very talented and hopefully will get some recognition that they deserve. If you can find the labels website, I'm sure there will be some sound samples there to judge for yourself.

Review by: Rob

JAIME KYLE | Best Of My Heart | (Frontiers Records, 1999)

Best Of My Heart / Bombs Away* / Stranded / Bad News / Back From Hollywood / Understanding / When Angels Cry / More Than Meets The Eye* / Everything But Love / Bed Of Roses / Let It Go / How Do I Stop The Tears / Movin' On Down The Road* / Crossing Over / If Not For You* (*=Unreleased songs)

A "Best Of" kind of collection from Nashville's Jaime Kyle who has preciously released two albums. This is rather good with lots of thoughtful midwest/AOR-rock and top tracks are "Bombs Away", "How Do I Stop The Tears", and of course "Stranded" (which Jaime wrote for Heart). Get it!

Review by: Larry