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You're The Voice
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Number of SAS Band (1997) Reviews: 1
Reviewer: John Fitzgerald, Human resources staff database assistant January 29, 2002 I'm probably a little biased here as I think Chris Thompson is a very underrated vocalist.
Though on the outside it may seem ready made for stadium rock it doesn't suffer the
facelessness or banality of such a genere. If you've heard Chris' band Night from around
'79 covering Walter Egan's "Hot summer nights" you'll know what I mean I'm sure! He
handles lead vocals on all but 3 songs very effectively and two others are sung with others,
the also often unnoticed Madeline Bell on "Didn't I blow your mind" and the song on
which Peter is listed as one of two guitarists, "That's the way God planned it" which has
an uplifting Gospel feel to it though it's very hard to distinguish "Peter involvement" on it
at all. Still a nice high point on the album and one of the essential less rocking tunes as this
album for the most part crunches along with some spirited run throughs of well known
numbers with highlights such as a rockiling version of ABBA's "The name of the game",
the Gin Blossoms' "Hey jealousy" (on which Tony Hadley does the lead vocal work) and
a great rendition of The Beach Boys' nugget "Sail on sailor". The best Thompson moments
are the opener "You're the voice" (which his voice was made for and it's great to hear it
done by the writer (co-written by Thompson) for once as his song has been better known
by acts like John Farnham and Heart to name a few) and the closer, Springsteen's "For
you" which of course is a staple of Chris' now since covering it so masterfully with Manfred
Mann's Earth Band. The other two songs on which the up front mic is used by another
vocalist are "Dreamworld" sung by Madeline Bell and "Baby you're a rich man" sung by
Jamie Moses. All in all, Spike Edney (from the Splinter Group) has put together a colorful
ensemble of guest musicians (including the late Cozy Powell & Neil Murray also
previously from the Splinter Group, Family's Roger Chapman, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson,
Queen's Roger Taylor & John Deacon and Kiki Dee (of "I've got the music in me" &
"Don't go breaking my heart" fame) among many others) to play some fun music. This
makes an interesting, more "pop/rock" addition to Green's discography in recent years
which helps us believe that he may dip his toes in this area someday as well (without
eschewing his great blues roots naturally) but we'll see I guess. Although many may find
this record "average", I'm going to recommend it for the reasons I found it entertaining
which I've stated above and I hope if you hear it, you'll find it a special listen too.
Information and album cover kindly submitted by John Fitzgerald. Transcribed to HTML by Marty Adelson.
