Hoey's vocalising was uniformly well received on his last release,
'American Made' (2006), so he's upped the ante on his new album,
'Utopia', with the majority of tracks utilising Hoey's husky voice.
I first came across Hoey in the melodic rock band, Heavy Bones. Their debut, along with Tall Stories' debut, were my most played albums back in '92.
Hoey swiftly went solo after that, and now counts 16 albums in a considerable body of work that's yielded several Chart entries stateside.
Hoey wears his influences on his fretboard and his celebrated eclecticism shines through on 'Utopia', the first solo album on his own label.
Of course, one person's "eclecticism" is another person's "mixed bag", terminology that's ripe with negative connotations. And maybe, in trying to cover all the bases, Hoey spreads himself too thin here.
Clearly, unarguably, he's on solid, rising ground with the album's 3 huge instrumentals, especially the scalpel sharp title track,
'Utopia' and the funkalicious
'Big Cactus'.
That upward trajectory continues through the stadium sized melodic rock of
'Reminds Me Of You' and
'Only Human' - plucked from the glory days of Bryan Adams, you would guess.
A couple more tracks would add themselves to the standout category with some justification. '
Something's Going On', filled with string bending funk and '
Simplify', white boy rock'n'soul as successfully mined by Hall & Oates for many, many years.
And maybe too,
'Walk Away', a track that owes much to rock's trailblazing heavyweight sluggers Pantera and Helmet.
It's all grounded in bass heavy staccato riffing - the bedrock of his instrumentals - and the changes of pace, the measured solos, the discernible melodies and the economic picking are Hoey trademarks.
None of this 'look ma no taste' shredding from Hoey, no flurries of meaningless notes. No headlong rush down cul-de-sacs. Every move has a purpose.
Those moves may not always lead to a perfectly chosen repertoire, witness a couple of forgettable tracks, the clichéd '
Barn Burner' and the embarrassingly simplistic '
Inevitable', but the heart of a Hoey recording always beats loud and clear.
What you see is what you get.
Written by
Brian Sunday, February 20, 2011
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