Ousey, Chris: Rhyme And Reason

A good friend of mine recently commented that Rhyme And Reason, which is the debut solo album from Heartland, Virginia Wolf and The Distance singer Chris Ousey, sounded exactly like you'd expect an album from Ousey and one time Streets, Seventh Key and City Boy guitarist Mike Slammer to sound. A lofty claim until you discover that it is also exactly what this album is! Slammer is a phenomenal, charismatic guitar player and song writer and when you add to the line up on this album Tommy Denander who has performed guitar on more cracking Melodic Rock albums than just about anyone else in the business, bassist Neil Murray (Whitesnake) and drummer Gregg Bisonette (David Lee Roth/Joe Satriani) you really have the perfect recipe to show Ousey's fantastic voice to the full effect. Thankfully Rhyme And Reason doesn't disappoint and while it does sound exactly like you'd expect it to, the fist pumping anthems, soaring guitars and scintillating vocals make for a top notch slice of heavy hitting commercial rock.

Ousey himself really is on top form and even from a vocalist who never seems to disappoint with his rich, yet soulful delivery, he still surprises with the ease with which he delivers the irresistible vocals on this album. However with songwriting and six string talent like Slammer and Denander backing him up, the songs are every bit as tasty as his voice. Tracks like "Watch This Space" or "The Reason Why" slot nicely into the same category as Journey do at their most bristling, while the brooding riff and in your face chorus of "Motivation" adds a little more grit, although it is still done in a smooth classy kind of way! The brightness of the production and the utterly convincing performances from everyone involved - Bisonette and Murray illustrate perfectly the impact that a talented and experienced rhythm section really can make to an album – means that songs like the stunning "A Chemical High", "The Mother Of Invention" and the groovin' "Don't Wanna Dance" are utterly wonderful slices of up tempo, guitar driven Melodic Rock.

The confident and upfront nature of Rhyme Or Reason really does allow this album to stand out from the extremely well populated Melodic Rock crowd, with the sheer class and quality of the songwriting ensuring that not only will you be singing along to these tracks on first listen, but that you'll continue to do so for many moons to come.

Track Listing
1, Mother of Invention
2. Motivation
3. To Break a Heart
4. Bleeding heart
5. A Chemical high
6. Give me Shelter
7. The Reason Why
8. Any Other day
9. Don't Wanna Dance
10. Watch this space
11. By any Other name
12. A Natural Law

Added: November 29th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Heartland Online
Hits: 2487
Language: english

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