Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Vega
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2018
Running time: 53:18
Rating: 4/5
And here it is, the fifth studio album from British melodic rock sensation Vega. Their fifth in a mere eight years of existence. It’s no longer news that the lineup is made up of a guard of seriously experienced, superb and highly talented musicians who have clocked up miles and miles over the course of their careers, and so are seasoned with every trick in the book and plenty of routine.
After the release of ‘Who We Are’, Vega toured heavily in 2016 and 2017, sharing stages with Magnum and Dan Reed Network, and also playing some prestigious festivals, including Steelhouse, Planet Rock’s Winter’s End, Hard Rock Heaven AOR5, Nordic Noise, Amplified and Rockingham. On October 1, 2016 they played Padua at the Melodic Rock Night festival, and they also did a run of shows across the UK and mainland Europe. So there’s no letting up. The chemistry between the band members is working, and new musical ideas keep on coming.
Only Human is a textbook Vega album. Highly infectious, instantly seductive. Ultra melodic. With emotional peaks in the choruses, loaded with vocal harmonies, and with the backing arrangements built on a superb balance of that signature dialogue between keyboards and guitar phrases. Basically, every last fan of the band will be happy with it, as will anyone raised on the British school of AOR and melodic rock. Sure, Vega no longer surprise with their new material. But they once again confirm their deft juggling act as producers and songwriters in a genre that, by 2018, has pretty much said everything it has to say. Still, if you know how to repackage and serve up »what’s already been said« with mastery, that’s no obstacle at all. And Vega are true masters of that craft, and they win you over with ease.
»Only Human« is the perfect »party« album. From head to toe. Optimistic and looking on the bright side. From the aptly titled opener Let’s Have Fun Tonight all the way to the closing Go To War. But it’s not all sugar. Vega simply have that internalized island sentiment of signature melancholy, which lets them tip their pomp over into full-on drama theater, something the dramatic charisma of the mid-tempo Mess You Made embodies in spades.
The songs are once again commanded by the incredibly authoritative, distinctive, expressive-in-every-register and powerful voice of the excellent Nick Workman. A voice that is really the first big magnet for any melodic rock fan, on the new Vega album »Only Human« too. The compositions are varied enough in their phrasing, and with their full-blooded production and arrangements they put a high-powered, bombastic hunger front and center, riding a giant wave that carries the new album the whole way through. »Only Human« is yet another dead-center bullseye for the band, their fifth, and fans of the group didn’t think twice about slotting this album into their private CD collections the moment they could.
Lineup
Nick Workman – vocals, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Tom Martin – bass guitar
Marcus Thurston – guitar
James Martin – keyboards
Mikey Kew – guitar, backing vocals
Martin ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson – drums
Production
Vega
Track list
1 Let’s Have Fun Tonight
2 Worth Dying For
3 Last Man Standing
4 Come Back Again
5 All Over Now
6 Mess You Made
7 Only Human
8 Standing Still
9 Gravity
10 Turning Pages
11 Fade Away
12 Go To War
