Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Shadowman
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2017
Running time: 48:40
Rating: 4/5
Shadowman is hard to pin down as a band, since they almost never play live. It’s more of a musical project. And what a project! Behind it stand British musicians who made their mark back in the eighties. One way or another, they helped shape, and even tailor, the face of British melodic rock and AOR. Running through the names in this heavy-hitting quartet: Steve Overland, lead voice of the famed AOR champions FM; guitarist Steve Morris, who writes most of Shadowman’s music and recorded a string of albums with the excellent (but defunct) Heartland. The rhythm section comes from two members of the cult British hard rock veterans Thunder: bassist Chris Childs (also of Tyketto) and unshakable drummer Harry James (also of Magnum).
Every new album from Shadowman happens when all four musicians have time to record it. Finding that time is the problem, because the start and finish of an album’s recording have to line up. The inspiration for new songs always comes first. Well, for this new one, their fifth, Shadowman needed a full six years to finally follow up its predecessor »Watching Over You« (2011). Overland is constantly busy with FM and his solo Overland records, Thunder, where James and Childs play, are back in full gallop, and Harry James always has a pile of commitments with the indestructible art rock legends Magnum. So it’s no wonder six whole years passed between the previous album and the new one.
Anyway. »Secrets and Lies« is another outstanding record from this project, drawing on the very best of the melodic rock and AOR legacy. Both stylistically and production-wise, it couldn’t sound any more British than it does. If you love this kind of music and know the project’s older records, you know exactly what you’re getting with every new one. And »Secrets And Lies« doesn’t stray a millimeter from the tried-and-true musical recipe that sparks and guarantees excellence and high quality. Besides the older Shadowman records, the new album definitely leans toward Heartland and FM, as well as Overland’s solo records. Among the older hard rock outfits, Whitesnake’s influence is noticeable. It’s as if someone took music from the eighties archives and dressed it in new, fashionable production with a far warmer, more organic and live sound.
Twelve carefully and lovingly »wrapped« new songs, written mostly by the member of the four with (at least seemingly) the most time on his hands. That’s guitarist Steve Morris, of course. These twelve new, extremely catchy melodic rock »earworms« are also marked by an excellent arrangement of the building blocks of the sound, with lead guitar phrases underpinned by the occasional chunky Hammond retro-sound lines, and by a rhythm section that’s terrific, punchy and distinctive at every turn. Then there’s the seductive, »soulful« touch of the ever-outstanding Steve Overland, who, after decades of singing, hasn’t lost one bit of his vocal expressiveness.
In short: better to move from words to deeds as soon as possible and get yourself a fresh rotation of this extremely skillfully and expertly seasoned album, the work of a typically British school of the best that melodic rock and AOR have to offer in their legacies.
Shadowman – Best Things in Life (official audio):
Lineup
Steve Overland - vocals
Steve Morris - guitar, keyboards
Chris Childs - bass
Harry James -drums
Production
Steve Morris & Steve Overland
Track List
1. Gravity (4:34)
2. Automatic (4:19)
3. Put It All On Love (4:45)
4. Contagious (3:26)
5. Broken Bones (3:53)
6. Best Things In Life (4:09)
7. Face The Night (4:23)
8. No Smoke Without Fire (4:09)
9. Good Times, Bad Times (2:58)
10. Be True To Yourself (4:21)
11. Secrets And Lies (3:57)
12. Stand Up And Be Counted (3:26)
