Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Moratti, Rob
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2016
Duration: 55:01
Rating: 4.5/5
Canadian vocalist Rob Moratti is no stranger to the global rock’n’roll map. Least of all among AOR fans. He’s one of the finest singers the genre has to offer, and he started racking up experience back in the early nineties with his band Moratti, with which he put out two albums (»Desolation« in 1995, followed two years later by »Legends of Tomorrow«). Then he joined the Canadian AOR outfit Final Frontier, with whom Rob released four well-regarded studio albums, and the band scored its most visible successes in Japan and Europe. The turning point of his career came in 2008, when the legendary Canadian art rockers Saga picked him as their lead singer after Michael Sadler announced he was leaving the band (it didn’t last long). With them he made an excellent new studio album, »The Human Condition« (2009), after which Rob focused on his solo career. In 2011 he dropped the equally excellent solo debut »Victory«, followed in 2015 by »Tribute to Journey«, a collection of Journey classics covers, and this year he also showed up as the singer on the album by AOR outfit Rage of Angels, titled »The Devil’s New Tricks«.
Moratti’s new album »Transcendent« picks up where its predecessor »Victory« left off, in terms of arrangements, songwriting and production. Anyone who happily »grabbed« »Victory« will feel no less passion and satisfaction with »Tanscendent«. It keeps all the qualities of its predecessor, and those rate very high. That makes it all the more thrilling that Moratti not only managed to hold on to the exquisite finesse that the basics of writing quality AOR demand, but in places the new album even builds on it.
For the new album Rob kept a core of collaborators around him, all of them highly experienced and proven names on the wider rock scene. With enviably impressive track records, of course. Chiefly that means bassist Tony Franklin (The Firm) and keyboardist Fredrik Bergh (Street Talk,ex- Bloodbound). Stepping in for Reb Beach (Winger, Whitesnake), who played nearly all the guitars on »Victory«, is the no less seasoned Danish guitar wizard Torben Enevoldsen (solo, Acacia Avenue), who had already worked with Moratti on the recording of »Tribute to Journey«. On drums this time is Moratti’s old companion from the days of the third Final Frontier album, »High Tension Wire« (2005), Stuart Reid. Two special guests appear on the album: none other than Saga’s guitarist himself, the great Ian Chrichton, who laid down the solo for I’m Back (his contribution sounds carved in a »Schon-esque« style), and Christian Wolff, who played the guitars (solos included) on Lost And Lonely and Don’t Give Up. For shaping the album’s final sound, Moratti again kept Richard Chycki (among others Rush, Gotthard) at his side. It’s a crew of outstanding musicians, led as conductor by Rob Moratti’s incredibly melodic, dominant and consistently, brilliantly attractive vocal approach. At times, with his clean and polished voice, he literally stuns as he channels authoritative power into extremely high vocal registers, which he conquers with feather-light ease. The heartiness and optimistically bubbling spirit of Moratti’s vocal sentiment remain the core of his expression, which follows a strictly personal line.
With all that said, it’s not hard to see that inspiration from AOR giants Journey is, once again, in no short supply. »Transcendent« is soaked in them from start to finish. The songs are written so that they hit bombastic peaks in creating powerful moods within the chorus melodies. The melodic lead motifs grab you on the first listen and stick to the proven recipe that Journey, of course, laid down way back in the eighties. Moratti’s vocal color and approach are tailor-made for the AOR genre. And even though his timbre and vocal approach come close to, say, Tony Mills (Shy), Moratti has a distinctive personal touch that makes his voice instantly recognizable. Bergh’s synths sound typically »eighties«, which gives the album proper AOR charisma. Alongside Moratti’s incredible vocal acrobatics and the heartfelt tenderness he delivers when it’s called for, »Transcendent« carries a whiff of art-rock detailing, something you could already sense on »Victory«. That’s perfectionism, that’s experience! The songs don’t waver in quality. Once again the album almost entirely sidesteps the sugary excesses of AOR kitsch and gloss, with the exception of the love song Baby I’m Yours, which just sounds »childish«, just as naive as I Promise You from »Victory« did.
With »Transcendent«, Rob Moratti delivers another strikingly beautiful album, meticulously curated in its arrangements, a lavish AOR calling card with superb production, full-blooded bombastic impact, ultra-melodic appeal and a clearly audible personal artistic stamp. It’s one of the best releases of the year in melodic rock and AOR, with which Rob Moratti firmly cements his expressive brilliance and artistic finesse on the global rock map.
Rob Moratti’s solo career is also a continuation of the Final Frontier story. In the studio, Rob now realizes all his ideas with the support of musicians (big names) like the ones he has, at a considerably higher quality level than he otherwise could. For Moratti, that’s a superb success. Something similar, of course in an entirely different musical and far more commercially successful story, is Steven Wilson’s move from Procupine Tree to a solo career.
Rob Moratti – Answer of Life (official video):
Lineup
Rob Moratti – vocals, backing vocals
Torben Enevoldsen – guitar, keyboards
Fredrik Bergh – keyboards
Tony Franklin – bass guitar
Stuart Reid – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Ian Chrichton (Saga) – guitar solo on the track “I’m Back”
Christian Wolff – guitar on the tracks “Don’t Give Up” and “Lost And Lonely”
Production
Rob Moratti
Track list
1. Answer Of Life
2. Don’t Give Up
3. Edge Of Love
4. I’m Back
5. Lost And Lonely
6. I’m Flying High
7. Within Your Eyes
8. Midst Of June
9. There’s No Denying
10. To Be An Honest Man
11. Baby I’m Yours
12. Euphoria
