Richie Kotzen's career spans from joining
Poison at the age of twenty and recording "Native Tongue" to playing fusion with Vertu and joining
Mr. Big on their last album "Actual Size". In between
Richie Kotzen released solo albums in various genres - ranging from Rock, soul and Blues.
Last year
Richie Kotzen released the brilliant, but bumpy "Change" and quoting from
my review of "Change";
" Overall this is a pretty good album, which keeps getting better. Because of the diverse styles, it took a while to tolerance the whole album. At the same time, the lack of consistency is also the album's weakness..
Next time I would love to hear a full album with songs rooted in the modern Rock style that characterized the first 4 songs. I can only imagine what a strong album that would have been. "
Guess what! Richie took my advice (yeah, I wish) and really nailed it this time with a consistent album rooted in guitar based rock with a touch of Blues.
Richie Kotzen's new album "Get Up" contains no fillers, but 11 great songs.
Credit to Richie because he focuses on songwriting instead of long guitar solos. The album opener
Losing My Mind has a great solo, it doesn't steal the spotlight but is fully integrated in the song. The melody is always the most important - like on the catchy
Such a Shame, which immediately became a favorite.
Fantasy stands out with its fantastic drive. The lyrics dealing with love and lust is in contrast to the hard rocking beat of the song, which should get every hard-rocker up from the easy chair.
Richie really shows maturity in his songwriting. He also adds groovy elements on
So Cold and a funky groovy guitar on
the melodic
masterpiece
Still.
The album contains three ballads
Remember, Special and
Made for Tonight, where the last-mentioned again underlines Kotzen's skills as songwriter craftsman.
Made for Tonight is amazing and has Richie's best vocal performance on "Get Up". Overall Richie's singing has improved tremendously and his vocals really sound powerful on this release. His voice is unique caused by his very special tone, which provides flavor to his voice.
Overall "Get Up" is everything I wished for since the album is true and consistent to the melodic hard rock style. The only departure from that style is the mediocre ballad
Special, which has an easy listening feel to it. My only objection is the drum sound, which sometimes sounds a bit thin and machine alike.
Overall the album flows perfectly and is packed with straightforward, very melodic Hard Rocking songs. Richie seems very comfortable with this tuneful style and "Get Up" is permeated with the joy of playing. Richie's thick guitar tone complements his bluesy vocal and almost all songs on "Get Up" have "hit singles" labeled on them - so "Get Up" and run down to the record store to purchase the album.
Written by
Michael Friday, September 10, 2004
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 8/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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