CD Title: Forbidden Colors

Track By Track:

1. No Sunday Bride (4:25). Very reminiscent of some of the material on DMT, the keys and strong chorus are present, with a slighly heavier emphasis on the guitarwork, a harbinger of things to come on the album.
2. Chinatown (4:28). A guitar intro leads into a kind of moody verse, which builds effectively into a solid chorus. While this isn't the most memorable song on the album, it's not because the track is bad, it's because the others are that good. I like the guitar solo quite a bit.
3. Thrill of It All (3:45). I hear early Survivor all over this one. A solid track, but again, not the most memorable, although from the bridge on out it stays pretty darned intense.
4. Can't Tame the Raven (4:11). This is first track that truly "blows me away", from the poignant violin intro, to the almost "folklike" verse, into an absolutely THUNDERING chorus! This track does to me what Dearborn Station did to me on DMT. The violin work throughout, combined with a fairly low-key verse offsets the builds into the chorus absolutely perfectly. A very unique song. I can't praise it enough!
5. Hard Yellow Line (You Lied to Me) (3:48). Here we start to hear a slightly harder-edged Harlan Cage, a fast-paced tune.
6. Last Plane Out (4:25). Another absolute winner! I picture three guys at the front of the stage rocking back and forth to the music. It drives you, a veritable anthem of AOR in its intensity.
7. A Little Rain (4:19). Now we relax a bit, a nice mid-tempo ballad. I absolutely love the chorus on this one. A good soul-searcher.
8. Feel the Wheel (3:32). Wait a sec! Is this Harlan Cage? This is a heavy rockin' tune, and it works quite well. Definitely guitar-driven, and some great riffs throughout!
9. Making My Way Back to You (3:27). A nice piano ballad that builds into a wonderful chorus. In the verse I hear a little bit of Meatloaf's balladry, but the chorus is pure Harlan Cage.
10. Late Night Escapades (4:04). Uh oh, put on your seatbelts! We've got another rocker going on...a very dark verse leads into a towering chorus. What's that? The guitars are getting louder??? Hang On!! Another standout track!
11. Before the Night is Gone (3:37). *whew* After that last track we nead a breather, and this little ditty provides it quite nicely. An acoustic guitar intro into a *very* Journeyesque ballad verse takes us a wonderful chorus. The lights are down and the cigarette lighters are out for this one.
12. Two Ships in the Night (3:53). This rounds out the album wonderfully. Extremely radio-friendly, a bouncy rocker that nevertheless has all the trademark Harlan Cage hooks.

Well, I'm spent. Simply put, this is a phenomenal disc. If I had to pick nits, the *only* downside is that perhaps the production is a bit wanting in spots, but that is a minor criticism which is more than compensated for by the wonderful musicality of the album. Even the tracks above that I earmarked as "ok" or "not memorable" are that simply because they are on this album. Were they to be released on any other disc by any other band they'd be focal points. I can't stress it enough: if you are a fan of vintage Journey and of true AOR the way it used to be, you cannot miss this disc! Congratulations to the band on an exemplary accomplishment!!

Rating: 98/100