Band : Ed Kowalczyk
Album Title : Alive
Label : V2
Distribution :  V2
Release date : June 2010
Review : CD

Ed Kowalczyk is of course the former lead singer of the band Live, responsible for 8 albums and 20 million copies sold worldwide.

Former singer, yes indeed, because due to a financial dispute with the other band members, greedy Ed had to leave the band. And so Ed Kowalczyk goes solo, while the other Live members worked together with two members of Candlebox to form the new band The Gracious Few, who will release their album in the summer of 2010.
It didn’t take long for Ed to form a new band around him and “Alive” is his debut solo album.

Does the music differ a lot from the Live sound? No, not at all, it still are rock songs and ballads with a lot of pathos and spirituality, both in the lyrics and in the way Ed sings. The man has a dazzling vocal range and knows the tricks to sing with a passionate and swollen voice. “Alive” contains 12 songs and has a playing time of 44 minutes.
Highlights of the album are the opening track “Drive”, the first single “Grace”, “Drink (Everlasting Love)” which was co-written with Chris Daughtry, “In Your Light”, “Rome”, “Eat Your Love” and “Sweet Surrender”.  

The coming months, Ed Kowalczyk will play a whole bunch of dates in the Netherlands in August and September 2010 and he also visits Belgium on September 2nd 2010, when he plays at Openluchttheater Rivierenhof in Antwerp.

80/100

Erik.