Artist: John Waite  
   Title: Downtown - Journey Of A Heart
   Label: Frontiers Records

The name John Waite is synonymous with the power ballad but the man is more than that and openly admits to being a bit of a rocker at heart.  With this latest release John has stripped down and rerecorded some of his more memorable songs from his illustrious career, in his own words ... “I wanted to have a basic sound based on guitars, Hammond organ and piano.  No synth stripped down and ready to be played live in front of the audience”.  The album also boasts a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic Highway 61 and one new song St Patrick’s Day.  Aided by numerous guest musicians this is more than simply "a best of", this is Waite doing his way.

The album opens up with ‘The Hard Way’, the first of three tracks from the 2004 album of the same name.  The other two tracks being ‘Keys To Your Heart’ and ‘New York City Girl’.

The album also goes back to Waite’s days in The Babys, with ‘Isn’t It Time’ from the 1977 Broken Heart album and ‘Headfirst’ from the 1979 Head First album.  Both tracks showing that a good song never goes out of date and these two new versions are just superb renditions.

But it’s the classics like ‘Missing You’, ‘Downtown’ and ‘When I See You Smile’ that makes this album for me, as each new version of the timeless classics are just superb, sounding fresh and vibrant.

This is a must have album for fans of Waite, whether it be his early stuff with The Babys or Bad English, or his solo work, this album is sure to please.

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