Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Player
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2013
Running time: 62:38
Rating: 4.5/5
Player are back too! With a new studio album, of course, how else? This is the band that made its mark in the second half of the seventies on the red-hot map of the American arena rock scene. The band released its self-titled debut in 1977 and broke through internationally with the hit Baby Come Back, and the album »Player« went »platinum« soon after. That success opened the doors to the stages of jam-packed stadiums, where they shared bills with commercially hot acts like Gino Vanelli, Bozz Scaggs, and later Kenny Loggins, Heart and Eric Clapton. In 1983 Player hung up their career. Even before that, a falling-out in the fall of 1978 led to Peter Beckett’s temporary departure, and after that “blow” the Player camp never fully recovered, even when he came back. Ronn Moss turned to a successful acting career in 1981 and left Player. Beckett did still put out the album »Spices Of Life« with the crew in 1981, but then he couldn’t carry the burden anymore either and broke Player up in 1983. The band did show up on stages sporadically over the following years, and in the mid-nineties they even released a new studio album, which came out in Japan under the title »Electric Shadow« and later in the US as »Lost In Reality«.
So the agonizing uncertainty is over. Player have sent out a fresh sign of life, and here it is: »Too Many Reasons«. The band’s two main men, Ronn Moss and Peter Beckett, have never hidden their exceptional gift for writing melodically combustible songs that hit you with instant catchiness the moment you hear them “first time through”. At times that talent almost hangs out with the fatal AOR sweetness of Foreigner’s mega hits, as in Sins Of Yesterday , The Words You Say or My Addiction (in the latter, with a “Beatles-style” hairdo of a tune, they even get close to the energy of classic Cheap Trick). But the closer the sound moves toward “softness”, the more it brings to mind the musical principle of America. That is, a sound where rock is tightly fused with the pop rhetoric of the late seventies and early eighties. It’s hard to single out highlights among the compositions, because all 13 tracks are spectacularly well used for staking out that predatory line between effective melody and rock-and-roll spell. With their latest release Player confirm once more that they’re a band that can ignite fans of Foreigner just as well as fans of America or even The Eagles. Examples of songs on this album where you can find common denominators between those bands and Player are the already mentioned excellent acoustic ballad The Words You Say, the no less “venomous”, ballad-shimmering Part Of Me, and generally one of the best compositions on the record, called Kites, which, with an engraved mandolin accompaniment in the background and a kind of “sirtaki” sentiment, defiantly holds on to an AOR trail of melodic catchiness. The album is exceptionally strong on ballads. That very element confirms the extraordinary songwriting power of the Moss/Beckett tandem. It’s hardest, after all, to create a ballad that doesn’t come off as pathetic, banal, too sugary, and whatever else you can think of. And these two know how to keep a tastefully restrained line that radiates a remarkable refinement of composing. Even when Moss and Beckett set about breathing a pinch of blues contour into a certain song, it keeps all the bite of the melodic payoff in the chorus (the title track Too Many Reasons).
Soft, but organic. Beckett’s vocals are maturing like good old wine, getting even more predatory in their sensual delivery, and the guys know what it means to dose out the harmonies of the backing vocals, which they use to master-fully dress up the choruses. The album of thirteen songs (plus a redefined Come Back Girl) carries beautifully polished tunes, and among the tracks there are plenty of serious candidates that could easily have caught fire on the Billboard charts in the early eighties. Years have gone by, but the musical philosophy of Moss and Beckett remains unchanged. And it still ignites!
With his vocals, Beckett recalls, in sensuality, Robert Berry of Alliance, especially in songs more heavily backed by acoustic accompaniment, and occasionally even his excellency Rick Springfield (To The Extreme), while in the delivery (the emphasis) of the verses he doesn’t hide his British roots.
The album is the right address for romantics. There aren’t many fast-paced rock marches, really just two: Man On Fire and Life In Color. But that leaves the organic soundscape plenty of room for an exposé of full-blooded, subtle sensuality, which this album is utterly steeped in. As said, the compositions are truly polished to the max. This is an album lost in time. Player’s comeback album, in grand style. A real masterclass in song arrangement, and a textbook example of balancing rock and pop elements in songs born for radio play. A wonderful album you can put on any time and use to recharge your energy batteries, drained by the everyday battles.
Lineup
Peter Beckett – vocals, guitar, backing vocals
Ronn Moss – bass guitar, backing vocals
Rob Math – guitar
Johnny English – keyboards
Craig Pilo – drums
Production
Peter Beckett / Ronn Moss
Track List
1. Man On Fire
2. Precious
3. I Will
4. Tell Me
5. The Sins Of Yesterday
6. My Addiction
7. Too Many Reasons
8. To The Extreme
9. The Words You Say
10. Life In Color
11. A Part Of Me
12. Kites
13. Nothin’ Like You
14. Baby Come Back
