| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 10 |
| Melody | 10 |
| Performance | 10 |
| Lyrics | 8 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
| Recording Quality | 8 |
| Commercial Appeal | 8 |
| Overall | 9 |
First and foremost I am a guitarist but I did learn to play piano at an early age so I can appreciate the keymanship on this track whic emulates amazingly realistic guitar sounds. The track has a big 80's style rhythm guitar that grounds things to the beat - very cool and retro. On top of this Mark Holley quickly asserts himwself as a virtuoso with a keyuboard solo along the line of Dream Theatre which plays and feels like a guitar solo. Some lovely use of vibrato and the bed wheel to give the performance that authentic quality. The piano chords add to the rhythm but also gave me a flashback to the old tv show Fame:-)
As far as the compostion goes, the track moves nicely and changes as you would expect it to from verse to chorus and bridge. This adds to the commercial appeal as not everyone goes for the odd meters and prog transitions. The feel of the track is upbeat with a hint of the blues which is achieved by the cool, use of pentatonics over a major sounding power chords with the minor sounding pinao parts. I'm no expert on theory so don't shoot me if I've got that wrong but to my ear, that's how it sounds anyway!
Mark Alexander adds vocals which fit nicely and have a good tone. My only complaint was the mix of the vocals, they sounded like there was a close room reverb on them whereas the rest of the track sounded more 'spacey'. Overall they work very well though, I could imagine this track as the soundtrack to an 80's movie like Beverly Hills Cop (not a bad thing!), which is cool becuase the track effectively creates feeling in the listener (unlike most stuff out there). All in all a very good track, loved the composition and especially the keyboarded guitar parts. Gets a thumbs up from me!
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