Artist: Newman
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2006
Rating: 4/5
The fifth album from Englishman Steve Newman proves it’s downright ideal to be blessed with multi-instrumentalist talent, own your own studio and write exactly the music you want, without having to bend to the wishes of other members, the way you would in a band. Steve once again played and sang just about everything, with the exception of the drums, which were handled by his buddy Rob McEwan. Newman keeps growing as a musician and songwriter on “Heaven Knows”! Its predecessor “Sign Of Modern Times” was considered his best up to this release, but now it’s not hard to admit that its younger brother “Heaven Knows” has snatched the scepter right out of its hands.
Whoever had their fingers on the mixing desk turned out a real studio gem, because the songs are marked by an exceptional balance of instruments within the production. They all breathe freely without stealing each other’s space. The picture is crystal clear, yet it keeps the sheen, the bombast, the proper rock ‘n’ roll sex appeal that makes your pants feel a size too small in no time. Sound and style? Classic British eighties melodic hard rock with noble touches of the AOR greatness of bands like FM or Heartland. The passionate The Way You Love Me, This Time, Ain’t Gonna Cry Forever and Never Meant To Fall In Love are just some of the tracks where these elements stand out the most. In short: big melodies, with keyboards and guitar riffs locked in a symbiotic weave. And, as always happens to fit so wonderfully, there are glorious multi-vocal harmonies. The album has a hard-hitting opening stretch in Heaven Knows, and right after the opener that stretch is further reinforced by the track Higher. Newman didn’t forget to add the punchy half-ballad Learning To Live either, which only proves his mastery at writing melodies that grab your ears. After it comes The Circle, which winds the album back up and “gallops” off again at a harder melodic tempo. It feels like you’ve flipped the record over to side B! The Circle would have been a great pick to open the album!
The songs Heaven Knows, Higher, Aint Gonna Cry Forever and Sport Of Kings were written together by Steve and his buddy Anders Rydholm (Grand Illusion), who thus returned the favor to Steve.
Closing the album is the acoustic On Any Other Sunday, dedicated to the more than 200,000 victims of the devastating tsunami that raged through Asia last December. Luckily, the track is placed right at the end, because it clearly stands apart from the rest of the material. It’s an acoustic lullaby, and if he’d slotted it somewhere in among the other “Heaven Knows” material, the album’s dynamics would have been badly castrated, and with them that excellent, highly vibrant swagger of an album steeped in the essence of British AOR
You don’t need Einstein to help you crack some unsolved stylistic puzzle on this one. It sticks to the classic templates of melodic British hard rock, and it’s graced by consistency from start to finish, a musical polish that sparkles through the flawless production, through the seamless blending of motifs, vocal parts and instrumental middle sections, all seasoned with masterful guitar solos. On top of that, Steve Newman delivers an album that only settles into your ears after repeated listens, even though it’s strikingly melodic and the songs have expressive main themes. “Heaven Knows” has dramatic twists in its motifs and an approach driven by feel, which captures a high atmosphere with a slight touch of melancholy, the kind only the Brits can breathe into music so effectively, and the very thing that so clearly sets European melodic hard rock foundations apart from the American ones. So it’s not just routine, it’s surrendering to the “feel”. An album for devoted fans of British melodic rock, and for a wider audience too.
Lineup
Steve Newman – vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards
Rob McEwan – drums
Production
Steve Newman
Tracklist
1. Heaven Knows
2. Higher
3. Aint Gonna Cry Forever
4. Move On
5. The Way You Love Me
6. Learning To Live
7. The Circle
8. This Time
9. Wait
10. Never Meant To Fall In Love
11. Sport Of Kings
12. On Any Other Sunday
Album length: 56.24
