This is a CD that forces you to kick back and marvel at the enormous amount of people that had to come together to create a single work of music.
Radioactive has always been a showcase of snappy melodic tunes with a revolving guest list of vocalists to keep things shaken up, but neither of the previous duo of discs had quite this many musicians involved from around the globe.
This is another of Tommy Denander's projects. Denander is all over everything these days and that hasn't proven to be a drawback yet. He is a great guitarist and has the songwriting thing down to a science. Some may say he has stretched himself too thin as of late, but not one of his projects has suffered from his prolificacy yet. In fact, this third go-round under the
Radioactive name may be the best thing he has released this year. Scratch that, it IS the best thing he has given us this year, and then some. That could be because even moreso than with the past two
Radioactive albums, he wedges in a little bit of every melodic rock taste. This makes it like a sampler of the genre, allowing tiny sweet bites of various approaches to the sound. Add to that a huge cast of musicians that have shown up for the party, and you have quite the album on your hands. The ultimate classic
AOR sounding disc that is firmly rooted in the here-and-now of today, thanks to modern production.
"C.O.W." is a fast and dirty guitar blazing bit that kicks off the album with all strings flaming for a short minute.
It rolls right into the title track, vocally powered by Bobby Kimball and shining with flair and a tight chorus.
Producer Anders Carlsson even gets a turn at the mic, and takes us home with
"Stronger Than Yesterday". A great little midtempo rock track, but what's more mindblowing is the fact that this guy can really sing. If you are wondering *who* this is, he's produced for everyone under the sun, including Def Leppard, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears. Maybe he should think of helming his own album after this successful run as a vocalist. Anders' ability to produce and write winning hitmaker material is uncontested. Also of note is the drums here. They are handled by Jeff Porcaro who has passed on.
"Hit Her Where It Hurts" is the first real killer, thanks to a wonderful vocal turn by Gary Barden and some crazy cool keyboard effects. Barden's
Silver bandmate, Michael Voss even shows up on backing vocals.It oozes with rocking elegance and pure class all the way. The guitars are fiery hot and the chorus is melodic gold.
James Christian and his wife
Robin Beck have both unleashed solo albums recently but nothing from either of their efforts even comes close to touching this.
"Easy's Getting Harder" is
AOR firmly swept up into the breezy Westcoast spirit. Christian and Beck are dueting with each other across a gorgeous ambient musicscape and both sound glorious. James is just soaring with emotion and Beck handles her lines with equal sentimentality.
"This I Promise You" is a big, bold, sappy ballad that flies straight from the book of Michael Bolton over-indulgence. Every guitar note just wrings your soul dry and leaves you all mushy and warm inside. So simple and pretty at its heart, but all the welled up emotion surrounding this core makes it a special creation. The ending with a piano solo is especially light and loving.
Mikael Erlandsson does a nice job with this one.
"Forgiveness" completes the trilogy of softer stuff that makes up the cream of this mushy center. It's a fluff bit, but makes for nice background music. It just lacks the punch of others and thus sits in the shadows. Christian Ingebrigtsen is crooning here, and sounds alright, just not a standout.
Tommy Denander was behind vocalist Philip Bardowell's solo album earlier this year. Yet nothing from Bardowell's disc was quite up to this level of excellence, as good as it was. Philip is back singing for Denander again, this time with an intense
AOR track that sucks the breath away. The chorus is absolutely superb and all the electronica effects help give it an updated sound.
"Shattered" gets wildly white-hot as the power builds into the climax of a fast and furious
Yngwie Malmsteen solo. The Swedish guitar maestro just rips the song wide open and then the chorus slams back into existance for another go-round that seems even more dedicated than the last. Brilliant stuff, and Philip just nails every line with unwavering conviction.
"Premonition" gave me the giggles at first. The opening synthesizer sounds just like the instrumentation from the super happy, candy coated electronica band, Freezepop. This makes for several seconds of unique music listening that will strike most to be unusual, and strangely this feel is woven in and out of this otherwise melodic rocker. A few moments of halting pompousness pop it up to Queen-like levels. Then there's the midsection that takes you back to that Freezepop-like opening with distorted vocals and strange synthesizer programming. This track is so all over the place yet bound together by some fantastically weird elements. The genre needs more groundbreaking material like this, that takes the essence of
AOR and just stands it right on its head. Fergie Frederiksen makes his appearance on vocals here. I couldn't imagine anyone else, other than perhaps Goran Edman, bringing to life this quirky track and making it work vocally. He does get some backup from Thomas Vikstrom who blends nicely with Fergie.
"Carry On" is yet another powerhouse track and sees both
Mikael Erlandsson and
Kelly Keagy sharing vocal duties. Just a solid, over-the-top melodic masterpiece. Neal Schon offers up the talk-box starter on this one. A strange way to start a rather standard track that is taken to higher levels only by performance. Sometimes the heart that is put in it makes all the difference in the world.
"Love Is On Your Mind" has more unusual synth programming, this time pulsating behind the verses, keeping a strange rhythm. The guitars are all over the place, especially during the blazing solo and the chorus is bombastically massive. There is no avoiding it: you will be singing this for weeks on end. It's that snappy and addictive. Kudos to Vikstrom for turning in a great vocal performance.
"Sinner" has Jaded Heart's new frontman, Johan Fahlberg flexing his vocal chops. While the chorus is another nice one, and the strange and beautiful effects are reminiscent of
Silver's debut, it lacks some of the creativity and staying power of the other material here. Johan has such a pleasant voice though that he keeps you locked in for this rock'n'roller. Powerful heavy melodic rock through and through.
"Never Gonna Let Her Go" ends the album on an unexpected oddity. This is pure Westcoast, uncluttered and untampered with. And not just Westcoast, it happens to be an instrumental. Michael Landau and
Steve Lukather are the star power behind this fluff which brings to mind
Street Talk or when the sax kicks in, Kenny G even. Feathery and tension-free, this sends the disc off on a cloud of relaxation.
Radioactive's "Taken" contains some of
AOR/melodic rock's best songs of the year.
"Hit Her Where It Hurts",
"Premonition",
"Love Is On Your Mind",
"Shattered"... these are all songs that shatter the earth and can and will rock your world. All of them are so different and such unique entities but are power packed into this one collection. With it's changing styles and rotating musicians, every song feels poppin' fresh and there are some truly unique takes on the old formula that make this sound very much in the here and now. For those who love all things melodic, this is a must purchase.
Written by
Alanna Monday, December 5, 2005
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