New Mecca CD

[Guest MoodSwings]

[phaffas]

Congrats - you are one seriously ugly band.

[zacharyamelie]

I thought it would near impossible to best Unruly Child

but Mecca is uglier.

[phaffas]

i found a better picture of Mecca..

 

Mecca by night..

[zacharyamelie]

It took 6 years to release the new one, so line-up changes were bound to happen, more band members added with less spandex and hair in general.

 

Mecca...circa...a long time go in a galaxy that never existed.

 

 

 

Mecca during the tough, tough years. So sad to see. I just felt I should add a link since the photo is a real downer for the band.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ww_Z3_kSU18/SFScge0Vf9I/AAAAAAAAABA/2CmV7ia8u9U/s1600-h/Ugly0003.jpg

 

 

On a serious side note I loved the first release, way back when.

[TIM (2)]

I thought it would near impossible to best Unruly Child

but Mecca is uglier.

 

I thought they were back with Mark Free again, but from that picture it seems they've hired Judge Judy as their new vocalist?

[Jez]

Wait for all the hype to start on this one . I liked the debut Mecca, but thought it was way over hyped at the time. Listening back to it a couple or so months ago, my mind hasn't changed and it even may have slipped down a couple of more notches.

[TIM (2)]

Wait for all the hype to start on this one . I liked the debut Mecca, but thought it was way over hyped at the time. Listening back to it a couple or so months ago, my mind hasn't changed and it even may have slipped down a couple of more notches.

 

If I listened to it these days I'd be concerned I might slip into a coma. Way too middle-of-the-road for my liking, although my Dad quite liked it...

[Swazi]

Wait for all the hype to start on this one . I liked the debut Mecca, but thought it was way over hyped at the time. Listening back to it a couple or so months ago, my mind hasn't changed and it even may have slipped down a couple of more notches.

 

although my Dad quite liked it...

 

at least someone in your family has a good musical taste !

[Glen]

Wait for all the hype to start on this one . I liked the debut Mecca, but thought it was way over hyped at the time. Listening back to it a couple or so months ago, my mind hasn't changed and it even may have slipped down a couple of more notches.

 

although my Dad quite liked it...

 

at least someone in your family has a good musical taste !

 

The first Mecca album is decent AOR, but can hardly be called a 'classic'. Ive seen comments labelling this new album as 'thinking man's aor'....that worries me slightly....usually means zero hooks and over long songs...we'll see.

[Geoff]

Wow, this thread went from nothing to pure brilliance. Seriously, it has to be said that that's the ugliest, most unappealing visual presentation I have seen of a band. I thought my grandfather had passed, but apparently he plays in the band Mecca?

 

It's been a lifetime since I spun the debut, but if I recall it had 5-6 very good songs and the rest were fillers. I think I thought it was pretty decent, but I agree it was WAAAAAY over-hyped at the time and only half as good as most people made it out to be. Looking forward to hearing what they come up with this time, though.

[TIM (2)]

Wait for all the hype to start on this one . I liked the debut Mecca, but thought it was way over hyped at the time. Listening back to it a couple or so months ago, my mind hasn't changed and it even may have slipped down a couple of more notches.

 

although my Dad quite liked it...

 

at least someone in your family has a good musical taste !

 

I deserved that!

[Jez]

The first Mecca got a full 100% at Melrock, which was way off imo, now the new one gets the full score aswell. Hmmm! I have my severe doubts some how.

[Glen]

The first Mecca got a full 100% at Melrock, which was way off imo, now the new one gets the full score aswell. Hmmm! I have my severe doubts some how.

 

Me too - sounds complex and a grower which will put many folk off - I'll give it a go tho.

[Geoff]

Full marks? Holy shit. It didn't even sound good enough for me to buy the thing! With the great prices at Amazon I'm pretty much blindly buying any MHR/AOR new release at the moment, but I thought I'd exercise caution with this album, and I'm glad I did. Went through the samples on Amazon and it certainly didn't sound like a keeper to me.

 

I'll try it out via way of MP3, but based on what I heard so far I don't think I'll bother with this one more than an initial test spin.

[Geoff]

Well, I gave this one a spin and I'm glad to say it's a hell of a lot better than the samples suggest (as usual). It's still got a way to go before I actually bother buying it, but it's not too bad. If you're comparing apples with apples, I think it's a long way better than the new Journey CD, but that said, so is my new toenail. So whilst that might not mean too much, I do think it's okay for this style of AOR.

 

It's well played and produced, with a few pretty good hooks. I did keep getting the feeling, though, that the hooks and choruses were just that - pretty good. They were generally nice, but also very unspectacular or exciting. I suspect this will be a nice CD to put on somewhere when you're not concentrating too much, but I'm not sure these songs could hold my attention if my sole focus for an hour was playing this CD.

 

Initial impressions, you're probably looking around the 60-70% region for my score.

[Glen]

Well, I gave this one a spin and I'm glad to say it's a hell of a lot better than the samples suggest (as usual). It's still got a way to go before I actually bother buying it, but it's not too bad. If you're comparing apples with apples, I think it's a long way better than the new Journey CD, but that said, so is my new toenail. So whilst that might not mean too much, I do think it's okay for this style of AOR.

 

It's well played and produced, with a few pretty good hooks. I did keep getting the feeling, though, that the hooks and choruses were just that - pretty good. They were generally nice, but also very unspectacular or exciting. I suspect this will be a nice CD to put on somewhere when you're not concentrating too much, but I'm not sure these songs could hold my attention if my sole focus for an hour was playing this CD.

 

Initial impressions, you're probably looking around the 60-70% region for my score.

 

Massive grower - give a few spins. This is classy perfectly executed AOR. I'm not the biggest fan of JV's vocals but they seem to fit here. The playing is exceptional. The likes of the one dimensional White Widdow has already grown tired but this has much more staying power.

 

The magnificent trumps both tho - that is excellent IMO

[TIM (2)]

 

The magnificent trumps both tho - that is excellent IMO

 

Yeah played the soundbytes and that sounds awesome...

[Glen]

 

The magnificent trumps both tho - that is excellent IMO

 

Yeah played the soundbytes and that sounds awesome...

 

You'd love it - like a cross of treat & place vendome with a few karlsson style solos - very nice!

[zacharyamelie]

The Mecca sound so damn boring. I ordered it and now I'm regretting it. The fact I ordered the Magnificent at the same time, sure won't me give it a chance and spin it many times just to like it. If I don'T like something immediately, chances are I won't be going back. I'm an instant gratification kind of guy.

[Nightrain]

The Mecca sound so damn boring. I ordered it and now I'm regretting it. The fact I ordered the Magnificent at the same time, sure won't me give it a chance and spin it many times just to like it. If I don'T like something immediately, chances are I won't be going back. I'm an instant gratification kind of guy.

 

I think maybe boring because you expect something uplifting, energetic, rockin' sound while this one is more laidback, light, and quite slow in tempos. I kinda dig it after couple of spins, so if you need to cut it lose for maybe half the price of Amazon, PM me, I'll be glad to pay for it

[Glen]

Yeah it's a grower, but I like it - v classy stuff.

[TIM (2)]

The Mecca sound so damn boring. I ordered it and now I'm regretting it. The fact I ordered the Magnificent at the same time, sure won't me give it a chance and spin it many times just to like it. If I don'T like something immediately, chances are I won't be going back. I'm an instant gratification kind of guy.

 

Yeah I'm a bit like that too. That said, my 2nd fave disc of this year (Work of Art) really didn't grab me for about 4 spins and now I can't stop playing it. Same with the WoA debut, took me ages to love it. There are quite a few discs I'm interested in at the moment (Fergie Fredrikkson, Kimball/Jamison, The Magnificent, Chris Ousey, and Mecca) and to be honest this sounds like the weakest of the bunch so will work my way through the others...

[Jez]

I don't mind the fact that this is light or laidback, as I listen to alot of Westcoast/ Lite AOR, but initially, the songs didn't strike me as that great. It is definitely a slow burner though, as slowly it is catching on and without doubt, needs a good few spins for it all to kick in. Where it will end up come years end is anyone's guess, although I will categoricaly say that this certainly isn't a 100% disc.

[Glen]

I don't mind the fact that this is light or laidback, as I listen to alot of Westcoast/ Lite AOR, but initially, the songs didn't strike me as that great. It is definitely a slow burner though, as slowly it is catching on and without doubt, needs a good few spins for it all to kick in. Where it will end up come years end is anyone's guess, although I will categoricaly say that this certainly isn't a 100% disc.

 

Backed I'm many spins in now and have tentatively rated at 80-85%. it certainly is a grower and I love the laid back nature - great listen for the way home.