The great Louis Grammatico – arguably the greatest rock vocalist of a generation (or ever) – treats fans to a 10 track insight into the past, with a selection of songs recorded in the late 80s, remastered and in some cases, finished off in recent months.
Most of the material I would vouch comes from between the first and second solo albums (‘Ready Or Not’ & ‘Long Hard Look’), plus at least one from the underrated Shadowking project. That song in particular is the lead track featuring Vivian Campbell on guitar. ‘Young Love’ is an instant Lou Gramm classic. Hard to comprehend why it was left on the shelf at any stage.
So too for most of the tracks really. Yes, there probably reasons why they never made it – especially when competing with the near perfect line-up of songs on those 3 albums. At times it comes down to simply that some songs sound close to others, or the tempo doesn’t fit the flow of an album.
Most other tracks feature co-writes and instrumental accompaniment from long-time musical partner Bruce Turgon (who should always be praised whenever possible).
You’ve got tracks like the sharp edged ‘Walk The Walk’ - in the vein of ‘Hanging On My Hip’ (from LHL), a gorgeous mid-tempo rock ballad ‘Long Gone’; the answer to where the title track from ‘Long Hard Look’ went (and also the first use of the name Shadowking in the lyrics) and the ‘Ready Or Not’ era rocker ‘Word Gets Around’, a track I’ve loved since 1987 on a live concert broadcast Lou did at the time. A piano version of ‘True Blue Love’ is a nice change from the traditional ‘acoustic’ versions offered.
Not ever vocal is perfect – which leads me to believe there are a few new ones in amongst the tracks, but whatever production has been done to get this release ready is AOK with me.
Basically an essential release for any Lou Gramm fan. A perfect bookend for his career outside of Foreigner.
Speaking of which – ‘Walk The Walk’ features some very Foreigneresque saxophone and ‘Time Heals The Pain’ clearly morphed into the classy ballad ‘Until The End Of Time’ from the band’s classic ‘Mr. Moonlight’ album.
