Label: Aqua Pulse Records
Release date: May 2, 2020
Production: J. K. Harrison & Todd Sucherman
Album length: 40.10 min
Genre: Art Rock / Pop Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
How does the Phil Collins story go again? A drummer who later, as a composer, singer-songwriter and above all a vocalist, raked in millions of rustling greenbacks with a string of unforgettable hits? Todd Sucherman is a drummer first and foremost too, but with a different kind of musical career. After 25 years of drum duty with a very good employer, the iconic arena rockers Styx, Todd finally decided to put out his first solo studio album. An album that would surely have landed Sucherman a well-selling hit or two back in the eighties. But since Collins could be Sucherman’s dad, he got to be in the right place at the right time in rock’s golden era and got filthy rich. Todd Sucherman is of course denied that, because sadly he’s no David Guetta. So in 2020, “Last Flight Home” will be discovered only by the most devoted Styx fans and readers of Sucherman’s drumming textbooks, who’ll check it out out of sheer curiosity, as well as by everyone who still has a thing for radio-friendly eighties pop and art rock aesthetics and AOR music.
The album will definitely please fans of the famous American rock fortress Styx, because musically it’s an ultra-catchy piece of work. That was the logical expectation. The album is very organic, the guitars flaunt a “jangle” sound, at moments distinctly Beatles-like, even though you have to keep in mind that it was recorded under mandatory isolation, thanks to the rules of the game set by the coronavirus pandemic. But for this record Sucherman teamed up with J.K. Harrison, who proved to be the “most valuable player” in making it. J.K. took care of the brilliant production, played practically all the guitars and basses, contributed all the keyboards, and co-shaped the arrangements. Sucherman would have had a hard time getting this album out into the world without him. At least in the form it’s in. And the cherry on top is that it’s a very good album.
The strong influence of the musical legacy of the famous Liverpool quartet is felt throughout the album. Sucherman has had to wake up and go to sleep with The Beatles for many years. That’s undeniable. The “Fab Four” left such a strong mark on how he wrote the music on this album. Sucherman is a drummer first and foremost. A fantastic drummer. But since “Last Flight Home” is a singer-songwriter album at heart, the musician’s personal confession steps into the foreground.
What we hear is retro nostalgia for the radio-friendly pop rock aesthetics of arranging, composing and sound production, with hints of a potential upgrade toward progressive loosening-up on one side, as well as favoring bombastic elements on the other, which could steer the album toward the characteristics of the AOR genre. But the record keeps to the golden middle and stays in very organically produced pop and art rock with a “jangle” resonance, sensitively loaded with the spirit of the eighties and Todd’s personal “Beatlemania”.
The tracks are arranged with hair-splitting precision. Harrison recorded multiple guitar lines (layered one over another) and also delivered a brilliant contrasting interplay between phrasing and keyboard lines, working in Hammond organs, classical piano and orchestral elements alike. There are strings too, supplied by special guests, along with cleverly woven guitar harmonic embellishments and solos made of skillfully measured, short but punchy strokes that keep the arrangements tight. In this production and arrangement setting, Sucherman’s silky voice sounds like it was simply cast for it. Todd isn’t primarily a vocalist, but he has enough gift and talent to rescue the situation with his vocal character very well at every step of the album. That silky voice carries a mild throaty breathiness, balanced in the higher registers by the occasional falsetto, and he clearly benefited a lot from Harrison’s deft production tricks with extra vocal effects. The choruses are also brilliantly contrasted with multi-part vocal harmonies that add pomp to the album. Sucherman is convincing in terms of lived-in feeling too, crowned especially by his passion in It’s Perfection. The opening title track can be compared to the arrangements on Steve Perry’s record “Traces”, Sacred Book of Favorite Days is soaked through and through with Beatles-isms, in Do You Know Sucherman, backed only by piano and strings, tries himself out as a chansonnier, and the closing Kindling is a curiosity, since it’s a cover of an Elbow original. So. The album “Last Flight Home” is an exceptionally varied and diverse, very polished achievement, bursting with refined creative commitment and a hunger for perfectionism. Sucherman’s first solo studio album is predictably a solid effort, since over 25 years the guy has surely had to learn a thing or two from his far more experienced Styx bandmates. That the album is actually as good as it is, though, is a very pleasant surprise. Its content doesn’t leave the listener in the lurch for a single moment. A deeply confessional and heartfelt art and pop rock album of eighties retro-nostalgia, accompanied at every step by skillful singing and extremely rich arranging, an optimization of the sonic landscape itself, full of contrasts and colorful detailing, from a richly internalized aesthetic of concisely measured strokes of fine mechanics, whose veils you’ll be lifting for quite a while, despite the album’s otherwise ultra-catchy musical payoff. Slowly. Like a very good dessert.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Last Flight Home (5:17)
2. Sacred Book Of Favorite Days (3:44)
3. Ad Lib Everything (4:12)
4. An Invitation (3:50)
5. It’s Perfection (4:12)
6. The Damage (3:43)
7. She’s Red Velvet (3:44)
8. Do You Know Me (3:27)
9. I Can’t Use Them Anymore (3:29)
10. Kindling (4:31)
Lineup:
Todd Sucherman – drums, percussion, vocals, backing vocals, loops
J.K. Harrison – all guitars, basses, piano, keyboards, loops, percussion, backing vocals
Taylor Mills – backing vocals on “It’s Perfection”
Nicholas Markos – electric guitar on “Kindling”
Tom Wardle – acoustic guitar on “Last Flight Home”
Michael Bahan – tabla on “Sacred Book Of Favorite Days”
Kaitlyn Wolfberg – strings
April Guthrie – strings
Andrew Shullman – strings
