Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: July 9, 2021
Production: Alessandro Del Vecchio
Album length: 46.17 min
Genre: AOR/Melodic Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Toby Hitchcock is considered one of the most respected, recognizable and charismatic voices on today’s melodic rock and AOR scene. The American singer, known for his work with Pride of Lions, has lent his vocals to some of the best new classics of the genre. Music critics love to compare his fiery, soulful voice to names like Bobby Kimball (Toto), Jimi Jamison (Survivor) or Lou Gramm (Foreigner). Company nobody would be even remotely ashamed of.
While Hitchcock’s Pride Of Lions partner in crime – the legendary Jim Peterik – is busy cooking up a new World Stage album, Toby Hitchcock set about creating a new solo record. After the two well-received predecessors “Mercury’s Down” (2011, RockLine review) and “Reckoning” (2019, RockLine review), “Changes” is Hitchcock’s third solo album. For it, Toby teamed up with the in-house producer at Frontiers Music Srl, the label’s resident “jack of all trades”, multi-instrumentalist and composer Alessandro Del Vecchio, who penned a handful of fascinating new tracks for Toby’s killer tenor.
This time the guitars came from Scandinavian musician Martin Jepsen Andersen, who also plays in Blindstone and did way more than a great job. Even though all the building blocks were recorded at opposite ends of the planet, they’re glued together superbly into one whole, which gives the impression of a band album rather than one by a solo artist. On drums, Del Vecchio brought in his countryman Nicholas Papapicco, who has already notched up his fourth album as a studio musician this year alone. Earlier in 2021 he played drums on Robin McAuley’s new studio album, the debut by Mayank and the new Inner Stream album. Del Vecchio thus handled the bulk of the arranging, composing and production. He played keyboards and bass too – his downright fat, growling yet incredibly melodic bass lines stand out especially in the dramatic Garden Of Eden and Say No More. The very successful cover of Before I Met You deserves a mention as well. The original, titled Xano Esena, belongs to Greek singer Despina Vandi. The album opener Forward works in the vein of Scandinavian AOR revivalism. Think Palace.
Hitchcock is brilliant. At the very least. Explosive, expressive in every register, and unbelievably passionate and soulful. Dominant and commanding. An album like this is a real pleasure to listen to thanks to that kind of vocal brilliance. Even though Del Vecchio is up to his neck in countless musical projects, he managed to put together most of the material on “Changes” so that the songs stand up credibly all around and reach a quality that keeps “Changes” right up there with “Reckoning” and “Mercury’s Dawn”. Don’t Say Goodbye is a dramatic ballad where a touch of chanson comes through, something that has always marked Toby Hitchcock’s approach to the calmer songs. Once again it proves that ballads are among the singer’s strongest expressive trump cards. The album’s closing track Losing You, the second ballad on the record, confirms it and hits even harder.
The album is wonderfully varied in its ideas, and Hitchcock, with his vocal chameleon act, is a key element that keeps the drama theater swinging throughout, so the listener never feels like they can see what’s coming next. Say No More definitely stands out with its hugely dynamic vocal approach, where the singer shows off the incredible charms of his exceptional talent. A tenor that kills. Set within an album that doesn’t disappoint for a second and stays right on par with his two previous solo studio efforts.
This is an album that will be snapped up by everyone well versed in this singer’s vocal track record, as well as by anyone who likes the west-coast AOR approach led by the works of the genius Jim Peterik (the old Survivor man, and Pride of Lions). “Changes” confirms that feeling especially toward the end, when Two Hearts On The Run and On the Edge Of Falling follow one another. With “Changes”, Hitchcock stays firmly in the saddle of the game he plays. And may he keep playing it that way for as long as possible.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Forward
2. Before I Met You (Xano Esena)
3. Changes
4. Tonight Again
5. Garden Of Eden
6. Don’t Say Goodbye
7. Say No More
8. Run Away Again (From Love)
9. Two Hearts On The Run
10. On The Edge Of Falling
11. Losing You
Line-up:
Toby Hitchcock – vocals
Martin Jepsen Andersen – guitar
Alessandro Del Vecchio – bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Nicholas Papapicco – drums
