Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Frederiksen, Fergie
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2011
Running time: 53:40
Rating: 4/5
Fergie Frederiksen, or more precisely Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen, an American vocalist of Danish roots, is a name every Toto fan knows all too well, since he lent his pipes to their excellent studio album “Isolation” (1984). That was a long time ago. Even before that there was his work in the pioneering rock outfit Trillion, whose debut “Trillion” was one of many records from the turn of the seventies into the eighties that built the platform for AOR’s later expansion. Then came his stint in LaRoux, a solo debut from 1981 released under the pseudonym David London, time in Angel, the aforementioned jump to Toto, collaborations with Ricky Phillips, and vocals on the well-received Mecca debut from 2005 (a new Mecca album is out this November!). Twelve years ago Fergie put out his second solo studio album “Equilibrium”, which belongs in the collection of every die-hard AOR devotee.
Fergie took his sweet time cobbling the new album together. What sets it apart from “Equilibrium” is that he actually put his name down as co-writer on just one of the new songs, the title track, which is the fruit of his collaboration with former Survivor member Jim Peterik. And there’s a story behind that song. In June 2010 Frederiksen was diagnosed with liver cancer, so the months that followed were anything but rosy for the musician. He turned to the thing that means the most to him. Music. That therapy proved incredibly effective: his health has improved noticeably to this day, and he’s back on the scene with a brand-new record that seriously signals this is far from his last.
Times have changed. They call for new production, and the lyrics aren’t stitched together so naively anymore; the carefree spirit of the eighties is long behind us. Besides its optimistic outlook, “Happiness Is The Road” naturally comes with a much more wound-up, beefed-up and warm production, and Fergie’s voice has dropped and thickened noticeably over the years, which suits the state of the new times, the new arrangements and the new album. You’d be hard pressed to find a better pick for producer in this situation than Dennis Ward!
The songs sprouted in the brain-gardens of seasoned arrangers! Let’s count them off: Jim Peterik (Pride Of Lions, ex-Survior), David Roberts, Mark Baker, Gui Oliver (Auras), Joe Vana (Mecca), Christian Wolff, Robert Saal (Work Of Art). These guys guarantee as much variety in the arrangements as the hermetically sealed AOR template can still bear, which keeps the album, as a whole, extremely compact. What’s more, that very variety in the lead motifs guarantees a superb dynamic flow, and at the same time the album clicks on the very first listen. Dennis Ward played a hugely important part here too, masterfully shaping the album’s sound. The seasoned producer perfectly underpinned Frederiksen’s lead vocal with infectious vocal harmonies that lift the atmospheric peaks of the songs in the choruses, and he created a lively weave of backdrop built on the dialogue between guitar riffs and classic eighties AOR keyboard rhetoric. This time it’s precisely the keyboards, and their tremendous variety in the arrangements, that stamp this album as pure-blooded AOR and melodic brilliance.
The songwriters naturally poured some of the energy of their home bands into the songs on this album too. It’s hard to escape that. It shows most directly in the songs Jim Peterik brought along, with that veil of the typical “Survivor hairdo”. There’s the aforementioned title track, the racing rocker Writing On The Wall, and the excellent ballad Follow Your Heart, where Frederiksen masterfully cashes in, through a lower-pitched use of his voice, on the optimal vector of sensual revival for the verses! This is exactly where you get the feeling that this kind of songwriting would be more than tailor-made for Peterik’s colleagues Jimi Jamison or Toby Hitchcock, too.
Speaking of ballads, both are standout moments on the album. The other ballad, Mark Baker’s The Future Ain’t What It Use To Be, is yet another gorgeous moment here, and Frederiksen’s voice behaves similarly to Follow Your Heart, except that here the range of his vocal reach is even more clearly on display. This song shows that even in his mature years Fergie can fire on all cylinders in the highest vocal registers, and do it very convincingly and infectiously. Mark Free also did a great job with The Future Ain’t What It Use To Be a long, long time ago, and Fergie Frederiksen’s version certainly doesn’t owe him anything in expressive vocal power.
Then there are the typical mid-tempo to fast AOR numbers that wring every drop out of the melody in the chorus. The One is one of them, opening on keyboards with a motif that vaguely recalls the opening trick of Cold As Ice (Foreigner), then Love Waits For No One, and especially (the already mentioned Peterik) Waiting On The Wall, which, in terms of squeezing the most out of the chorus melody, takes the win on the album. First To Cry, tailor-made for Frederiksen’s voice, also carries tremendous songwriting power. Its author Mark Baker had already donated this song to James Christian and his House Of Lords, and the guys put their own spin on it and included it on their fresh album “Big Money” (2011, Frontiers Records), which came out just three weeks before the official release of this Frederiksen record. And then there’s the venomously melodic The Savior, deliberately placed at the end of the album. The typical synth sounds of the golden age of eighties AOR stand out particularly ravenously in it.
Anyway, I won’t ramble on! Fergie Frederiksen is back, more alive than ever, with this new studio document. An album of new resurrection, which helped the musician beat cancer, it is hugely coherent, the songs keep an extraordinary consistency and the quality doesn’t wobble from one to the next at a single point. It’s also considerably better balanced than Frederiksen’s 2008 release with Tommy Denander. The production pulses with life, and the album’s flow captures a hugely dynamic, melodic, under-the-skin catchiness that catches fire on the first listen. Here is Frederiksen with a voice that matures like good old wine! This is an album that belongs in the league of the highest-quality AOR releases this year, and one warmly recommended to every old-school devotee of the eighties AOR tradition. It will be interesting to compare it with the joint solo album by vocalists Bobby Kimball (ex-Toto) and Jimi Jamison (ex-Survivor), especially to see how much “Survivor contour” each of them carries.
Line-up
Fergie Frederiksen – vocals
Nathan Eshman – guitar
Eric Ragno – keyboards
Dennis Ward – bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Dirk Bruinenberg – drums
Production
Dennis Ward
Tracklist
1. Angel (Mirror To Your Soul)
2. Elaine
3. First To Cry
4. Follow Your Heart
5. Happiness Is The Road
6. I Still Believe In Love
7. Lyin’ Eyes
8. Love Waits For No One
9. Writing On The Wall
10. The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be
11. The One
12. The Saviour
