Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Moratti, Rob
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2015
Running time: 50:32
Rating: 4/5
For those of you who don’t follow the rock’n’roll world day to day, it’s worth spending an intro paragraph or two on who the heck Rob Moratti is. He’s a superb Canadian vocalist, a member of Final Frontier, who, as part of the lineup of Canadian art rock giants Saga, contributed vocals to their album “The Human Condition” (2009). After leaving Saga in 2010, he put out an excellent solo studio debut, “Victory” (2011).
Now Rob has put together an album dedicated to Journey. He’s called it “Tribute To Journey,” and it’s a collection of Moratti’s favorite Journey songs. It’s not the first move of its kind. Quite a few similar compilations honoring the figure and work of Journey have come out over the years, and one worth singling out in particular is the one put together by American singer Kevin Chalfant (The Storm, Steel Breeze) in 2007, titled »Fly 2 Freedom«. Chalfant is actually Journey’s would-be singer: he officially joined Journey in 1994 and started working on material for a new album with the band, but then had to bid Journey a quick farewell, because Steve Perry changed his mind and came back to the band in 1985.
Messing with the legacy of AOR perfectionists like Journey is playing with fire. Only extremely seasoned musicians can afford it, and on top of all their know-how and refined sensitivity, they also need the right predispositions to bring their imitation close enough to the original to be credible.
And Moratti is well armed with those predispositions. Anyone familiar with Final Frontier’s output, as well as Moratti’s solo studio album »Victory«, quickly realizes that, with a bit of oversimplification, you could call Final Frontier the Canadian clone of Journey. As a songwriter, Moratti has always had a soft spot for Journey. Journey’s music actually shaped him as a musician. His voice, too, comes within a hair’s breadth of Perry’s. The difference is mainly that Moratti, while having a crystal-clear melodic approach, lacks that raspy element that adds vocal »oomph«, or let’s say velvetiness, to Perry, the famous »pipes«, while the tone in his chosen vocal range is itself remarkably similar to Perry’s and so incredibly compatible with the Journey catalog. If anywhere, Moratti passes the exam with flying colors in his incredible performance on the cover of the exceptional ballad Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever. Like I said, if not earlier, Moratti will fully convince you with this ballad that his decision to release an album of Journey covers was absolutely the right call!
Moratti deserves a seasoned crew of top-notch musicians around him. And of course they’re (once again) Scandinavian musicians. They follow the legacy of the originals with pedantic dedication and incredible heart. The sound is definitely a lot livelier than on the studio originals, and the same goes for the heft of the guitar riffs and the soloing itself, though the digital age has this time brought a somewhat too thin bass kick in the production. Well, you can hardly get close to Schon, if at all. Alongside tried-and-true standards like Stone In Love, Don’t Stop Believin’, Separate Ways, Anyway You Want It and Who’s Cryin’ Now, the musicians show off their interpretive power especially in the very demanding Mother Father at the very end of the album and in the already-mentioned phenomenal ballad Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever. Moratti also masterfully dressed up the lead vocal with additional vocal harmonies (all the vocals you hear on the album belong to Moratti), which came in especially handy for covers like Be Good To Yourself, where the chorus would surely have sounded cheap without that element.
If you’re a Journey fan, you have to check this one out. It deserves your full attention, because it’s an impressively solid copy, or rather a close approximation, of the original. Not identical, but sonically and performance-wise very faithfully done. On the other hand, Moratti is making great use of this release as a way of effective self-promotion. Who knows, maybe someday Journey themselves will call him up for the lineup. Considering Journey don’t have many years left, it’ll have to happen fast. So. The purpose of this album isn’t for Moratti to try knocking on Journey’s door, but on the other hand, it certainly wouldn’t hurt the Journey members to pay at least a little attention to Moratti’s vocal chops. Moratti, on the other hand, is bursting with energy, which you can feel in the vocal delivery on this album, where the singer is truly enjoying himself. His voice is full of fiery passion and proud emotion. Let’s hope he’ll approach the creation of a new solo studio album with the same zeal as soon as possible. It’s about time.
Lineup
Rob Moratti – vocals, backing vocals, MIDI sampling
Torben Enevoldsen – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, MIDI sampling, backing vocals
Graham Fillier – guitar, MIDI sampling, backing vocals
Piero Greco – bass guitar, backing vocals
Stu Reid – drums, backing vocals
Production
Rob Moratti
Track list
1. Separate Ways (5.24)
2. Only The Young (4.00)
3. Dont Stop Believin (4.01)
4. Faithfully (4.26)
5. Ask The Lonely (3.53)
6. Who’s Cryin Now (4.43)
7. Lovin Touchin Squeezin (3.53)
8. Stone In Love (3.58)
9. Anyway You Want It (3.27)
10. Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever (3.24)
11. Be Good To Yourself (3.56)
12. Mother Father (5.31)
