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Artist: Keel |
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Well with 2009 almost over it’s time to hail a new decade and what a way to get things underway but with five stunning albums from Frontiers paving the way in the new year. One of those superb releases sees the return of Keel, the band fronted by Ron Keel, who celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their ground breaking second album ‘The Right To Rock’, which is another of those five releases I spoke of. But it’s this new album that I want to focus on, this is rock n' roll old school with driving guitars and a stomping rhythm section that will have you grinding along from the off. The album opens up in style with the title track ‘Streets Of Rock & Roll’, with Marc Ferrari making his mark on the album from the start as his guitar solo gets this one underway and keeps it going throughout the entire album. Then Keel unleashes that familiar warm vocal and instantly you're reminded of those heady days when this type of rock ruled the airwaves. That same solid rock vibe continues with one of my favourites off the album ‘Hit The Ground Running’, again hard rockin’ at it’s finest with Ferrari once again laying down some great licks, whilst Keel still shows his vocals haven’t lost any of the might they had when we first heard him all those years ago. The tempo is picked up another notch or two on the excellent hard rocker ‘Come Hell Or High Water’, a track that will get those air guitarist’s of you reaching for that imaginary axe once more, a real top notch track that shows the band are back and are ready to rock your world once more. One thing that all Keel fans will remember about the band was the excellent ballads and this album has one to melt the snow and ice off those frozen hearts, the magnificent ‘Does Anybody Believe’ with Ferrari and Brian Jay filling the gaps in between Keels vocal parts with some soar away guitar work. But it’s the rockers on this album that really do it for me as the album continues to rock big style with ‘No More Lonely Nights’ and my personal favourite ‘The Devil May Care (But I Don’t)’, this one’s for the guitar players amongst you, driven riffs abound all interwoven with Keel’s powerful vocals. Coming in a close second to my favourite track is ‘Lookin’ For A Good Time’, this one is old school Keel, a great good time rocker as is the anthemic ‘Gimme That’. Two true blood rock tracks that really will have you wondering where have the band been all these years if this is the calibre of the material they are capable of. The Hard Rock never ceases as the album pushes on with the excellent ‘Hold Steady’ and the rockin’ 'Live’, before finishing off in style with the outstanding ‘Brothers In Blood’. The album really is worthy of the Keel name, a band that never got the real recognition they deserved outside the Hard Rock scene but now they are going to set the record straight with this new release. |
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Tracklisting:
01.
Streets Of Rock & Roll
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