I love this new
Mark Sweeney release.
I thought his debut solo album was an anodyne affair, taking too long to go nowhere.
All change. 'All In' bears the stamp of someone who knows exactly what he is doing, knows exactly what he wants and knows exactly how to get there.
Pitched somewhere between rock, pop and
AOR, this album, produced by Michael (Casanova) Voss and written primarily by Sweeney is an absolute gem, often reaching for epic moments, brimful of naggingly familiar hooks and featuring two phenomenal duets.
'Leave It All Behind' with Pearl (would her ma be mother of pearl?), and
'Moments' with
Robin Beck. More later.
The breezy, catchy
'Sinner' is the album's most pop oriented track. Very Elvis Costello / Squeeze, with a chorus that's hard to shift from the tip of your tongue.
I was suspicious when I learned that Michael Voss had handled the production. His one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't suit me.
Fortunately, his certain hand on the studio tiller has steered this album into clear blue water, airily swelling the album's rock guitar sound with lightfooted keyboard passages. '
All In' is awash with tempting, tantalising tunes and immense vocal performances from Sweeney, as he stretches his voice into every corner of every song.
His duet with Pearl is a peach. It's
AOR on a grand scale, satisfyingly epic, gilded by a chorus that's suitably climactic with that all important, goose pimpling key change on the coda.
The duet with
Robin Beck on
'Moments' goes for a similar grasp but hasn't quite the same reach. This song maybe just isn't strong enough to house two expansive vocal performances simultaneously. That said, it's the equal, if not more, of much that passes for quality melodic rock right now.
On the solo (vocal) stuff, Sweeney disabuses any misguided notion that he is a one trick pony vocalist. Perhaps it's because he singing his own material, but one way or the other, on tracks like
'Line Of Fire',
'Still Alive' and
'Another day' - classy songs with memorable melodies and heartstopping hooks - his voice truly wraps itself around the song and carries it off.
It's unusual for me to nominate more than one album of the month in any given month. But this month I believe Sweeney's second solo album is up there with John M Keane's solo release.
Written by
Brian Thursday, July 8, 2010
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