Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: 04/26/2019
Album length: 56.13 min
Production: Jim Peterik
Genre: AOR
Rating: 10 / 10
Jim Peterik today stands for a huge chunk of America’s AOR/west-coast rock legacy. If we’re being honest, the man deserves a monument, that’s how important his contribution is, back in the pioneering days, when with his ideas and an incredible, born-in-the-cradle knack for crafting signature songs, he helped shape the genre.
What we have here is a kind of second part, or continuation, of Peterik’s project and the album “World Stage”, which came out in 2001 and earned heaps of praise. “Winds Of Change” is a record packed with entirely new original material, and it’s frankly amazing how many songs this musician can still pull out of his sleeve alongside all his other activities (even at a mature age). And more amazing still: he never “misses the mark”.
Peterik is a man with a serious reputation: his ideas helped 38 Special break through commercially, he’ll forever be Survivor’s number-one man, even though he hasn’t worked with the band for years, he writes excellent music for his new band Pride Of Lions, and he’s donated his ideas to songwriting for bands and artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, The Beach Boys, Sammy Hagar, to name just a few. Back in the ’70s he contributed the big hit of his first band The Ides Of March (Vehicle). So the man can effortlessly afford to work with the biggest stars in his trade. For the new songs he invited a whole bunch of very well-known names from the world of melodic rock, hard rock, let’s just roundly say AOR, to take the lead vocals. Let’s list them: Danny Chauncey and Don Barnes (both 38 Special), Kevin Chalfant (ex-The Storm), Dennis DeYoung (ex-Styx), Matthew & Gunnar Nelson (Nelson), Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Lars Safsund and Robert Sall (both Work Of Art), Toby Hitchcock (Pride Of Lions), Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), Jason Scheff (ex-Chicago), Gunnar & Matthew Nelson (both Nelson), and from his rich archives the crafty old fox also dug up a song that’s never been released until now, with none other than the late Survivor singer Jimi Jamison on lead vocals, someone Peterik also worked with writing music for Jamison’s solo studio records. Ballads are mandatory. They don’t get away this time either, the quality is undeniable, and on the other hand, as always, they open the door for Peterik to reach the less demanding, that is, the American part of the human population, who’ll be even keener to grab the new record.
Peterik thought of everything again. He’s balanced the album superbly. There are two AOR marches, with perfect drama woven into sky-high, singalong choruses, like Without Bullet Being Fired (Mike Reno on vocals) and Will What I Want (Kelly Keagy on vocals), the ballad Just For you (Kevin Chalfant) and the Eurovision-style You Are Always There (Jason Scheff). Every song is once again polished to the max. A real textbook on writing stormier rock anthems, crossed with the top-notch pop aesthetic that conquered the radio waves of the eighties. Pick your favorites yourself. What’s interesting is that alongside the obligatory undertones, which fans of Survivor and Peterik’s songwriting style in general will recognize in an instant, the chosen vocalists, for whom Peterik very deliberately picked the songs, if not arranged them as carefully as he could so they fit the range and tone of each voice perfectly, bring an extra touch of charisma that’s “sworn brothers” with the home bands the singers belong to, and the feeling comes easily that these songs (with a few tweaks) could quickly end up on records by the likes of Loverboy, Styx, Chicago, REO Speedwagon, while Toby Hitchcock inevitably brings in the feel of true Pide of Lions belonging.
A top-class album from head to toe and a must for all fans of the west coast AOR legacy. Jim Peterik has once again proved that in the songwriting game, hardly anyone comes close to him. In the recipe for that infectious cross between rock and eighties pop, he remains a master without equal. Put on “Winds Of Change” and you’ll wish the eighties had never ended. Better still, for a good 55 minutes, you’re right back in them.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Winds Of Change (vocals: Danny Chauncey & Don Barnes)
2. Without A Bullet Being Fired (vocals: Mike Reno)
3. Proof Of Heaven (vocals: Dennis DeYoung)
4. Sometimes You Just Want More (vocals: Kevin Chalfant)
5. Home Fires (vocals: Toby Hitchcock)
6. Just For You (vocals: Kevin Cronin)
7. The Hand I Was Dealt (vocals: Danny Vaughn)
8. Where Eagles Dare (vocals: Lars Säfsund & Robert Sall)
9. I Will What I Want (vocals: Kelly Keagy)
10. You’re Always There (vocals: Jason Scheff)
11. Avalanche (vocals: Gunnar Nelson & Matthew Nelson)
12. Love You All Over The World (vocals: Jimi Jamison)
Lineup:
Jim Peterik- guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Ed Breckenfeld- drums, percussion
Dave Kelly- drums
Colin Peterik- drums
Klem Hayes- bass guitar
Bill Syniar- bass guitar
Bob Lizik- bass guitar
Mike Aquino- guitar
Jeff Lantz- orchestral arrangements on track no. 10
