Artist: Heartland 
   Title: Mind Your Head
   Label: Escape Music

'Mind Your Head' is the tenth studio release from Melodic Hard rockers Heartland and carries on the legacy of the band with the ever present vocal talent of Chris Ousey and the excellent Steve Morris, providing not just guitars, but also bass and keyboard duties, with the drums being covered by Fredrik Oscarsson.

This new album takes up where 'Move On' left off, with some of the finest Melodic Hard Rock you will hear this year.  The highpoint of this being the fantastic vocals of Ousey, who joined by the virtuoso guitar work of Morris, soon get things underway with ‘Magazine’ and it's straight into the good stuff with this up tempo rocker that will leave you torn between what is best, the vocals of Ousey or the guitars of Morris, a hard choice but what a choice to have to make so early in an album.

From this point on the album just goes from strength to strength with ‘For Pity’s Sake’ up next, this track has a slightly harder edge than the opener with it’s Bruce Springsteen feel before the tempo is really picked up with one of my favourites off the album ‘Frozen Heated’.  This is Ousey's finest vocal performance so far on the album and with some splendid riffs laid down by Morris, this one really sets the bench mark for the rest of the album for me.

The tempo is kept flowing with another excellent hard rocker ‘Last Man To Fall’, again this is another track where Morris really shines as a guitar player.  The tempo is brought down a little with the ballad ‘A Fathom I Fell’, even though this one has a more gentle refrain, it still brings out the best in Ousey’s vocals.

It’s soon back to the rockier side of the band with ‘So The Story Goes’ and the superb ‘A Mountain To Climb’, with its bluesy feel guitars before another favourite of mine ‘A Richer Vein’.  Check out the solo mid section by Morris, its soulful.

‘Run For Life’ has that typical America AOR feel about it but still remains within the parameters of the whole Heartland sound, with Ousey once again shining through.

The hard edged rock is what I like to hear and ‘Time To Believe’ is such a track with its dirty sounding guitar.  The album comes to an all to premature close for me with another sterling up tempo rocker ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ that has a certain Mr Big feel and rounds off what is a great album and carries on the long tradition of this band for producing quality releases ... and long may it continue!

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