Artist: John Jeff Touch 
   Title: First Touch
   Label: Lion Music

One thing that Lion Music does as a label is highlight some of the best unknown and new talent around and one of the finest vocalist’s I’ve heard for sometime is John Jeff Touch. Some may remember his with his work on the Vision album 'On The Edge' with Lars Eric Mattsson back in 2004, and those of you who caught that album will know exactly what a fine vocalist Touch is.

This his debut solo release has been a work in the making over several years, in between projects and now the album has been put together for release.

What you get from Touch is an album of pure melodic AOR that gets underway with the short ‘Message’, before the album really takes off with the splendid majestic tones of ‘Loving U’, a gentle pop rock song that really highlights Touch’s fine vocals, which have so many layers when you listen to the album in its entirety, you will be reminded of the likes of Robert Plant, John Waite and the like.

The album continues with the quite sublime ballad ‘Sometimes’, another gentle haunting opening that builds up with every verse into a mesmerising mix of melody and grace that will definitely pull at your heartstrings.

The gentle refrains continue with the semi-acoustic ‘Spirit’ and the excellent ‘Crystals’, two really fine slices of gentle AOR that will melt even the hardest of hearts.

There are numerous stand out tracks which highlight Touch’s singing voice but one track in particular ‘Each Day’, also highlights the stirring guitar work of Sotiris Gogos, a guitarist who is surely going to be inundated with work after the fantastic spellbinding fret work not just on this track but throughout the entire album.

It's plain to me that Touch has put his heart and soul into every track on the album and in so doing has made this a very personal album.  I’m sure it will become part of every listener as it just oozes melody and romance.  The album continues with ‘We Feel’ and the heart-rending ‘Moments’, before it's brought to a close with track of the album for me, the excellent ‘Between 2 Worlds’, before being rounded off with a completely acoustic version of ‘Sometimes’.

As AOR albums go this is top notch and as a debut album it is sure to put the name of John Jeff Touch up there.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from this fantastic vocalist very very soon.

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