| CD REVIEW JSS |
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Band : JSS “JSS” stands for Jeff Scott Soto…yeah, that wonderful vocalist who’s made singing his life’s passion. Jokingly known in the Melodic Rock music business as “Voice For Hire”, because he’s indeed jumped in on a couple of occasions to front a couple of the bigger bands, he’s also brought wonderful albums with the bands he’s fronted as a full-fletched member (for more info, check out the review I did for Jeff Scott Soto’s “The Essential Ballads” compilation album – which contained 3 previously unreleased tracks, just to remind you – posted 17/07/2006…for even further detials, check the artist’s page at www.rockdetector.com, or the biography that goes with this release posted at www.frontiers.it) and is now bringing us his third studio solo album to date (besides 2002’s Prism and 2004’s Lost In The Translation, there was also the live CD & DVD Live At The Gods)! Falling back on what I wrote on him in 2006, I’d like to add to my biography of Soto that since then, he’s fronted Journey for live duties in July 2006 when Steve Augeri had his chronic throat infection. He also contributed a cover of “So This Is Love?” on the 80s Metal Tribute To Van Halen album released through Deadline Records in September 2006, and a cover of “Magical Mystery Tour” to the Butchering The Beatles tribute album on Restless Records. In December of the same year an announcement was made that Soto was officially enlisted into the ranks of Journey, but after further touring duties he was sent packing in mid 2007. More recently, he’s also fronted Trans-Siberian Orchestra! The Beautiful Mess album was already released earlier in 2008 on the American Sewtoe Music imprint, and has already had live support by shows held during August in Bulgaria, and a spot on the Nothingham (UK) Firefest on October 25. It is now issued in Europe with two bonus tracks (or at least that’s what I understand…could be they only come with the download version…?). Anyway, if you’ve followed this charismatic and soulful singer’s career, or read up on his curriculum, you’ll know that he’s come across quite a bit of hybridisations of Melodic Rock with other music genres, including Blues, Pop, Soul, and Funk…elements which all come back on his solo albums, and in the case of Beautiful Mess there’s been no change from this followed route! As the bio mentions, “If you like the bite of Lenny Kravitz, the sultriness of Seal, the smoothness of Sam Cooke and the rawness of the nostalgic ‘70s Rock ‘n’ Soul all mixed with a contemporary touch of today’s hit music, this is one not to be missed!”, and that’s a statement I very much agree with!! The Kravitz comparison certainly comes out most with the greasily Funky track “Bring It Home”, but Funk elements (in a dimiinished quantity, but nevertheless important in the sound-making) are also present in “Cry Me A River” and “Mountain”. A Beatles comparison comes to mind for the actual album closer “Kick It”, while Seal comes to mind with some of the ballads (“Gin & Tonic Sky”, “Broken Man”, and “Wherever You Wanna Go” – the comparison not goin’ for the more Rocking ballads “Hey” and bonus track “Take You Over With Me”). Also rather special is the very modern album opener “21st Century” with its Hip Hop influences (scratching & vocal overdubs). I’ve no idea whom helped Soto out instrumentally on this album, because in their new promotion style (press has to download both music and info from a protected section on the label’s website), the label has not yet included thàt type of info (room for improvement there, guys!!!). I can only guess that the people (guitarist Brian Young, bassist Marcel Jacob, and drummer Jamie Borger) listed at MySpace (see address below) also contributed to the album, but I would think that Soto would’ve asked in some of his friends in the business to come make a contribution as well! What I càn tell you, is that you’ll find samples of both “21st Century” and “Gin & Tonic Sky” at the label’s website (follow frontiers.it/multimedia/audio & look for JSS), songs for which also videos were made (added? to the Ipod download & also available on the album’s limited edition’s DVD, alongside live footage recorded at the above mentioned Firefest). At myspace.com/sewtoe you’ll not only find further mp3 samples for “Cry Me A River”, “Hey”, “Broken Man”, and “Mountain”, but also the video for “21st Century” (where it’s suggested that Soto played the guitar himself!?) and an assortment of other videos!!! Stuff enough to convince anyone, and with that I mean even the biggest skeptic into Melodic Rock, that Jeff Scott Soto is one of the leading people in the genre! So, this is “Best (AOR) Albums Of 2009” time, and very deservedly so too!!! P.S.: At the same time as the release of Soto’s new album, Frontiers are re-issuing his first two studio albums, both with bonus material to entice the die-hard fans of the man into buying the album all over again! Whether it’s really worth the trouble is up to you to decide, because Prism not only gets the two songs (“Good Love” and “2012) that were included as bonus tracks on the original release’s Japanese version, but also a total of 4 live tracks (“Send Her My Love”, “Again 2 Be Found”, “Stand Up”, and “4U”), while “Lost in The Translation” is enhanced with the Japanese bonus track (“Turned The Page”) and 4 previously unreleased tracks (“As I Do 2 U”, “This Ain’t The Love”, “Lonely Shade Of Blue”, and an acoustic version of “Soul Divine”). As you can see, the bonus added is quite substantial!!! 98/100 Tony. |