30/01/01: Nick - PHIL VINCENT - TRAGIC (SONG HAUS RECORDS)
Nikammusic_Productions@thegowerspring.freeserve.co.uk
Rating: 9

'Tragic' follows on from Phil's highly acclaimed Song Haus debut 'Thunder In The East'. This new piece of melodic plastic shows a maturity in Phil's lyrics, thus 'Tragic' come across as Phil's best album to date The opening track 'Stand Or Fall' rips open into glorious keyboard melodies, the song is dead catchy and Phil's voice reminds me of Geir Ronning from Prisoner and Dennis De Young. Phil's voice is much fuller and his range is sure to please the AOR masses

'Where Do We Go From Here' is a gut wrenching ballad, the songs piano intro starts off reminding me of John Lennon, the song has a really smooth edge to it, similar to Mark Free and Styx, the lyrics are really strong and meaningful, 'Where Do We Go From Here' is a lovely piece of molten soft rock and one of my favourite songs of this year. 'Cruel' is pure melodic rock filled with great hooks and forceful vocals, the guitar parts get quite heavy and once the chorus hits home you'd swear you were listening to Dokken.

'Illusion' is a very special song for me, a hugely inspiring piece or music to get the goosepimples standing on edge. It's a haunting piece of musical genius, beautifully played and sung, 'Illusion' is a very very perfect ballad that left me speachless!! I have never heard Phil's voice reaching such high notes, (I'd hate be this guys neighbour, you'd never get any sleep) the delicate piano passages really turn this song into something special and is my absoloute favourite of the whole album. I'm biased, this is just so beautiful, I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but this could possibly be one of the most original and best rock ballads of the last ten years. Sheer musical genius

'So Sad' is another ballad but isn't as good as 'Illusion', 'The Hard Way' shuffles along at a steady pace offering nice catchy rhythms and strong lyrics, then Phil plays another trump card in the shape of a new version of ''Life Is A Game', the chorus is very stong and reminds me of Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name', one of Phil's best songs. The next three songs 'Matter Of Time', 'Changing Faces' and 'Long Night' continue to rock out in this style, particularly 'Matter Of Time' which reminds me of Tommy Shaw, especially when fill hits those high notes

.'My Life' is a song worth paying extra attention to as this almost hits STYX territories and is another of 'Tragic's' best songs 'Hard To Say Goodbye' is another great song with lots of great keyboards and brilliant melodies and a gigantic chorus that you will sing along too for months to come. All the songs featured throughout "Tragic" are hot little buggers, yearning to be heard by the masses of music fans worldwide take a bow Mr.Vincent sir.

http://www.Songhausmusic.com

Nick Baldrian