JLT
I wanted so bad to punch holes in
JLT. Not because I dislike JOE LYNN TURNER as a singer; I knew he'd been in RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, as well as YNGWIE MALMSTEEN's band, and I knew he'd sang on TV jingles as well, but I didn't know much about his solo material. I was all set for it to stink. I was all set to announce that he'd be better off selling shoes than singing rock songs...
Yeah, well... it's a good thing I didn't rip into the guy too hard.
JLT is a solid collection of straight-up rock songs. I should have expected this though. It's being released via Shrapnel Records (a label that releases a lot of guitar virtuoso titles)... and I usually wind up liking a lot of what they put out. No, it's not going to appeal to a huge amount of people in the U.S. Yes, his days of playing rock anthems in enormous arenas are doneski. The guy doesn't give a shit. He knows his market, and that's who he's playing to.
The best similarity I can draw is to SAMMY HAGAR's earlier stuff. Think of the tunes Sammy was writing in the 80's - "One Way To Rock" or "Heavy Metal" being the best examples I can think of. Driving riffs, STRONG vocals (Joe's not a spring chicken, and he's still sings like his balls are in a vice), melodic guitar solos and innocuous lyrics...all that crap that forces you to make silly faces and do air guitar. "In Cold Blood" is a great example of what I'm talking about. Just try and listen to it without making the "I'm taking a big dump and it feels oh-so-nice" face. "Excess" is one of those lighter-waving songs (of course if he's playing in a small New England club made primarily of wood, I wouldn't recommend sparking up anything), and "Driving with My Eyes Closed" makes you want to do just that...although if you're stupid enough to do that, then you deserve to hit a fucking utility pole and go flying through the windshield. The disc wraps up with "Hit The Switch", a cool, face-making riff-rocker.
Joe's voice has held up well, so he's obviously taken care of it; You don't sing like this and abuse yourself...unless of course your goal is to sound like Rodney Dangerfield, then go right ahead...but I digress.
The likelihood that you're going to hear any of these tracks on commercial radio is slim. My guess is that they'll wind up primarily on specialty shows and/or satellite radio. Basically, if you're a Joe Lynn Turner fan, you'll pick this up. If you're NOT, and you like melodic hard rock done by a guy who has a ton of experience making it, then you should pick this up.
If you're looking for anything else, then you're a putz with too much free time and you wasted valuable time reading this while you could have been doing something productive...like scrubbing the fart stains out of your undies.
