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Summer Joey; Written On The Horizon

With the likes of Auras and N.O.W. releasing quality melodic rock albums recently, it would appear that Brazil is beginning to have something of an excellent scene where this style of music is concerned. Now hot on the heels of those albums is Written On The Horizon which is the second and first English language release from Brazilian MR veteran Joey Summer. "Nascer", which was Summer's debut solo release was most notable for featuring a writing credit from ex Europe keyboard player Kee Marcello and this follow up, is not short on big name cameos either. Marcello is involved again as the closing track "Rough Ride To Paradise" has been provided by him and it is no surprise that it is the sort of slow piano led track that you could easily imagine Joey Tempest crooning over. Two of the songs "Don't Believe" and "Tables Turned" are reworkings of tracks originally by Street Talk and to reinforce that point keyboard player Fredrik Bergh and singer Goran Edman from that band show up on the first of those numbers, while ex Jaded Heart singer Michael Bormann wrote "Anymore" which also sees Jaded heart bassist Michael Muller contribute.

With such a stellar cast of contributors my expectations were possibly unreasonably high for what is Summer's first world wide release and while Written On The Horizon is a classy collection of melodic rock, it does lack the killer punch that would really see it hit the big time. That's not to suggest that this is a bad album, as tracks like the aforementioned - and stand out track "Anymore" contains a great hook and highlights Summer's powerful, yet warm to voice to perfection. Of the tracks that Summer and on occasion keyboard player Daniel Lamas put together, the up tempo rhythm of "Beating" and the wonderfully positive vibe of "Lorea" are proof that Joey doesn't need to rely on the big names for his best material. However the only failing of this disc is that not everything manages to have the same impact. Summer is a talented vocalist who almost comes over like a rocked up Lionel Richie in style (which is meant as a compliment!) and the arrangements on the likes of "I'll Never be Alone Again" show a maturity in the song writing that is lacking from many records in this genre.Summer's band all put in great performances with Lamas really shining across the whole album for his excellent keyboard contributions which add colour and depth to the songs.

This isn't quite a debut album, however for a first foray into the world market Written On The Horizon is a reasonably strong effort that aficionados of melodic rock will thoroughly enjoy.


Track Listing
1. Rise Up

2. Anymore

3. Written On The Horizon

4. Don't Believe

5. It's Only Your Love

6. Lorea

7. I'll Never Be Alone Again

8. Tables Turning

9. Beating

10. Brand New Day

11. Rough Ride To Paradise

Added: December 26th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Joey Summer on Facebook
Hits: 1265
Language: english

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