Artist: Ousey, Chris
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2011
Length: 46:06
Rating: 4.5/5
This year has been seriously fruitful when it comes to top-shelf melodic rock releases. The solo studio debut from ex-Virgina Wolf, The Distance vocalist Chris Ousey, best known for his work in the British melodic rock outfit Heartland, is another excellent studio effort that never stops impressing with the polish and bombast of its chosen lead melodies and the outstanding partnership behind its making.
The crew backing Ousey on the album is mighty, to say the least. A finely crafted vocal like Chris Ousey’s deserves nothing less. The rhythm section is two seasoned old hands who’ve seen and lived through everything the rock scene has to offer, bassist Neil Murray (Whitesnake, Gary Moore) and drummer Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Star, Joe Satriani, David Lee Roth,…), combined with two outstanding arrangers and multi-instrumentalists, the Brit Mike Slamer (The Streets, The Seventh Key, Steelhouse Lane, Slamer) and the unstoppable Swedish workhorse Tommy Denander (out of a heap of bands and projects, let’s just single out Alice Cooper)! It’s a setup where you can rest assured that nothing can possibly go wrong or go south.
This outstanding partnership has delivered 12 hair-splittingly polished melodic rock tracks, and not a single one of them knows how to be boring, or could be. The key to the success is the particular chemistry that developed as the arrangements took shape along the Ousey – Denander and Ousey – Slamer axes.
What lifts this album above the average of the heap of melodic rock releases is its outstanding production. Besides the fact that the run of 12 tracks is marked by real flexibility and variety in both the performance and the arranging, as far as one can even talk about that within the narrow template confines of the genre, Slamer managed to put together a sharply contrasted soundscape that’s practically bursting with vividness and with the clarity of its building blocks, sitting in full sonic balance. Placed front and center, Chris Ousey’s charismatic, throaty-velvety and unmistakably stamped vocal is the central figure of the album and its engine. The Murray Bisonette rhythm tandem has achieved fantastic tightness in the album’s “drive”, while Bisonette’s sparkling work on the transitional parts is a delight too. He let loose and gave it his all (as far as the melodic rock genre allows for drumming), vividly upgrading the album’s development and lifting its dynamic flow to an even higher level.
The album also packs wilder guitars than you’d expect from a “British Isles” production, but Slamer is known for not holding back much on guitar riff sound even with The Seventh Key, so that tracks. The massive wall of riffing is backed by a lively, perfectly matched wash of keyboard arrangements, which both Slamer and Denander have in their pinky finger. This time, though, they pulled it all off that much more successfully. Ousey’s vocals in the choruses and pre-choruses are generously supported by vocal harmonies, which gratefully thicken the sound picture and reveal its full dimensions. Tightly belted solos sneak into the middle sections, another element that adds an important pebble to the mosaic of colorful mood shifts on this highly bombastic album of true melodic rock brilliance. It’s hard to single out highlights, since the songs are polished to the max in detail. If you want a peak that brings the album close to “AOR purity”, it’s Don’t Wanna Dance. An unmissable Denander arrangement culminating in a highly tuneful, vibrantly effective chorus! Even the calmer parts, like the ballad A Natural Law at the end of the album, breathe fully with life. The sound is glossy, but just right, since it still fully captures the feel of colorful, living, breathing sonic warmth that never stops fascinating the listener.
On this album everything is in the right place. You could say Ousey’s vocal range is fully capitalized on. As a performer he’s never sounded so mature, heartfelt and convincing in his career up to this album. His voice matures like good old wine, both in the flexibility of his wide vocal range and in the passionate way he brings emotion to life through the verses.
Quite possibly even the best album of Ousey’s entire musical career. Counting both classic Virginia Wolf albums, as well as the excellent Heartland album “Move On” (2005). “Rhyme And Reason” belongs among the select circle of the highest-quality releases in melodic rock/AOR for 2011. Tried and true!
Lineup
Chris Ousey – vocals
Mike Slamer – guitar, keyboards
Tommy Denander – guitar, keyboards
Neil Murray – bass
Gregg Bisonette – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Kristoffer Lagerström – backing vocals
Billy Trudel – backing vocals
Production
Mike Slamer
Tracklist
1. Mother Of Invention
2. Motivation
3. To Break A Heart
4. Bleeding Heart
5. A Chemical High
6. Give Me Shelter
7. The Reason Why
8. Any Other Day
9. Don’t Wanna Dance
10. Watch This Space
11. By Any Other Name
12. A Natural Law
