Album review: ROBERT HART – Circus Life
Escape Music [Release date 26.01.24]
A new solo album by former Bad Company and Distance singer Robert Hart is always a ‘must listen’ for any melodic hard rock fan. On this album he is joined by Heartland’s Steve Morris and FM’s Steve Overland, who wrote the songs and played on the album (both were part of Lonerider, another rather good project released by Escape Music).
Other guests on the album include Robert Sall (Work of Art/WET), Steve Mann (MSG/Lionheart), Chris Childs (Thunder/Tyketto), Thunder drummer Harry James and Keith Atack, who recently had his own album released on the same label.
‘Overdrive’ opens the album, sounding not unlike the Distance album meets FM (thanks in part to the silky smooth backing vocals from Steve Overland). Plenty of depth sound wise to the album, such as on ‘Stone Heart’, a classy melodic rocker with lush backing vocals, keys and just enough guitar crunch to stop it becoming too soft sounding.
Touch of blues rock a la Thunder on ‘Blame It On Me’. Steve Mann adds some marvellous Hammond playing to this song. In a similar bluesy vein are ‘Lay Me Down Easy’ and ‘Too Much Time On My Hands’.
With Steve Morris involved in the songwriting there are plenty of tasty guitar solos to enjoy too. Pretty sure Robert Säll would have been involved in a solo or two as well.
Both the Steve’s have created music that suits Robert Hart’s vocal style to a tee, as well as drawing on the sound of his past work with Bad Company and Distance.
Hints of Foreigner on ‘That Was the Day’, with ‘The Time of Our Lives’ a catchy little rocker to round the album off with.
Robert Hart is still in fine vocal form and aided by a top notch set of musicians, has produced an album that will more than satisfy fans of his time in Bad Company and Distance. ****
Review by Jason Ritchie
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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024
ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)
Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)
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