EnJayKay

Yeah but nothing will change, because Frontiers see this as their big crowning achievement, a supergroup that they have total control over that features star power as opposed to a load of Scandinavians or guys from obscure AOR band's. They get to use the name's Journey, Night Ranger, Whitesnake and Foreigner to promote it, and it's a legit link rather than a tenuous one. It doesn't matter to them that it's all complete shit with a poor sound and terrible writing, because it's theirs. It genuinely seems that petulant. But I bet the sale's figure's tell an interesting tale.

I did wonder how this was coming out on Frontiers with Dino Jelusick (courtesy of Frontiers Records srl), after he successfully sued them to break their shitty contract (something that even Toto didn't manage!) Turns out it won't. Ronnie has a good voice, but the accent is still very heavy which is off putting. He's already sang for CoreLeoni, so this will inevitably just feel like an extension of that... a covers project of a former band by a guitarist.

No? They said it would take them through to 2025?

Yeah, I'm sure Deen said the 3 of them recorded 3 albums worth of material in one session so that fulfills their obligation through to 2025, as Deen wil be on the road with Journey and Jeff with Foreigner for much of the next 18 months.

To be honest so will I, but it'll end up like the other 3 (4?), played once and never revisited unless by shuffle on iTunes. They are genuinely some of the most underwhelming albums I've ever heard given the talent involved. Just have Deen sing for Journey, so he can sing good songs rather than by-the-numbers, lost-in-translation, copy-and-paste AOR, and then Journey will have a good singer again too, win-win.

I can only imagine, seeing as they knocked out about 3 album's in one sitting, all written by Del Vecchio, that this will be complete and total shite.

This is a cracking album. This and Destination Unknown are a step in the right direction for AOR Boulevard, as was the hiring of Steve Price and Steve Newman. The loss of Kelv and David Saylor could have crippled them, and they've bounced back with 2 of the best straight up AOR releases in recent years. And not a Del Vecchio in sight! I'm still playing them months after release which is something I don't often do with new releases in recent years. Plus David Forbes voice... *chef's kiss*

Bin it? Good advice where ADV is concerned 😅

I got Dirty Shirley and don't remember a thing about it...

Absolutely. Great melodic metal for the most part, totally let down by that odd emo growl vocal. Pick a lane, be Slipknot or be a decent singer. The best moments remind me of Worldchanger by Jorn. But that shouting shit, meh, I'm unlikely to listen to it much in the future. Hope he does an album with Michele Luppi, Doug Aldrich, Reb Beach, Marco Mendoza and Tommy Aldridge one day!

He might not be a bad songwriter... but he's not a good songwriter either.

I like melodic Michael Sweet, although Frontiers are going overboard with him now much like Ronnie Romero and Girish Pradham... But Del Vecchio... I don't get it. He can play keyboards real well. But his writing, production, singing.... shit. I probably wouldn't loathe him so much if the record label didn't force him down our fucking throats 3 - 4 times a month, and ruin projects with huge potential by making him the entire project and the featured artist essentially just a guest to sing over his terrible music. Escape Music use him just right, he plays some keys and picks up a wage. Job done. So I'll probably give this a miss.

That guy that books all those Oz tours that never happen?

That's the one. I don't know why they didn't strike while the iron was hot when they reunited... They reunited in 2012 and recorded an album in 2014 that never came out (Gardner, Stiles, Ross & Petrucci line up) They've been promising this album since 2017, then Gina left, then Janet left, then Lorraine re-recorded the vocals, then they went back in to do re-writes, then Share took an indefinite hiatus... Plus the Jan line up recorded a second album that was shelved when she opted to join the reunion line up so they could use the Vixen name... So there's 3 Vixen album's in the last 11 years just sat on shelves, and we get this crappy single by the drummer instead 🙄

Yeah I'm with you on that. Tangerine was garbage, Live & Learn had maybe 2 very good songs but awful production (and much like this, wasn't really Vixen). They had one new song on a live album after the 3 of them reunited, that was good. But yeah Janet's voice is just completely nasal now, and doesn't suit the Vixen material, although she'd probably sound fine on this song ironically. I hope there's an album with better material than this, because (for me) this is complete shit.

Lorraine Lewis does a great job, but I still prefer Janet Gardner. This just doesn't feel like Vixen, it's like a shitty pop-punk kind of song, by Vixen's drummer, an 80's rock singer and 2 random female musician's who happened to fit the mold. Despite the horrible production, I actually preferred the album by the version of Vixen with just Jan over this... Evidently Fred Courey wrote some stuff to submit to Halestorm, and Lzzy Hale didn't return his calls. So Vixen picked it up. I wonder if there's a new album or just this one-off single?

Still need to listen. I just struggle because I find Paul such a c***.

I'm very left wing and liberal, and while I understand why the band and label are opting for this change, I think it's kind of ridiculous. It's a niche audience buying an existing album from the 80's. We know it's name and the tits on the cover already. However, seeing as I listen to everything on my iPod via iTunes, I can just replace the title and artwork and not lose a moments sleep over it. The important thing is getting it with better sound quality. I think my copies are vinyl rip's and they aren't great.

Wahey! Glad to see this. I love Hugo Valenti's stuff, I'm sure this will be no different. As long as the production is nothing like Hugo 3: Fire In The Night... Robby Hoffman and Steve Ferlazzo are from Sunshine Jive (fka In The Pink) and Robby currently manages Extreme, so it should sound great.

Chris would probably struggle with that, given that he died 2 weeks ago 🙄 And given that Tough It Out was largely written by outside writers with the band, Steve writing with outside writers in that style could absolutely be the blue print for it. Doesn't mean it's going to be a remake of it, but if that's the style they choose to write in, I'm sure they'll achieve it.

So a few months, Hugo - Inception was announced and shortly before that Michael Anthony's new band with Jeff Scott Soto, Phil X and John Douglas was announced. Within weeks of the announcements, apparently neither of them are happening anymore? What happened. By the sound of it, the Hugo album was done as it was scheduled for release in November. Mike is more understandable as he's out with Sammy, Phil is with Bon Jovi and John is doing the Aerosmith farewell tour. But... is that it? Are they both just not ever happening now?

Yeah, I tried to listen to this yesterday and it sounds dreadful. Like one of those mid-90's "original 70's hits re-recorded by the original artists* *as many of the original artists who were available at the time of recording" album's that you get in Poundland or the 99p Store...

I hope Escape Music reunite Jules, Josh and Sam Porcaro for something else with a new guitarist. Trev is a talented guy, but everything he touches turns to shit and it's never his fault... I'm sure there's a reason that every band he puts together is dead on arrival.

I've seen someone on Facebook who's heard the album say it's 100% AOR, not a hint of blues rock, and that it sounds as if Tough It Out was the blueprint... So that's promising.

Better and more famous. Alot of these are horrible with heavy accents.