I am not going to apologise for this one. Yet another staggeringly amazing melodic rock album for 2014 …. and yet again from a BRITISH (who knew?) artist. It is almost getting embarrassing at the moment – the quality coming from the British Isles is truly unbelievable and, just when you think you’ve heard the best, then something else comes along.
To make matters even more unbelievable, the story of the man behind “Long Way Down” is one that most of us only dream about. After buying a new guitar pedal, Nigel Bailey discovered that included free with it was a copy of Cubase (digital recording software, for those of us not au fait) and started to “mess around” with writing some songs. Said messing around resulted in some demos that our hero sent off to the Gods of Frontiers and …. the next thing is he is working with Vinny Burns and Greg Morgan on the Three Lions project (yeah, I know we’re the only people not to review it … it is on the list, okay?), which afficiandos have raved about.Mr Bailey, however, is clearly not content with having one fairy story come true … and so we now have the forthcoming release of “Long Way Down”.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ6ThVSNaiM]Lovers of the finest melodic rock/AOR will love it, but what Nigel has put together here is something that bit heavier than the Three Lions album. Not just hard rock and metal, but some of these tracks groove with what can only be described as a funky swagger. Lead track “In the Name of the King” has a runninng time of over 6 minutes … but this is no progtastic beast. Double kick drum and riffs galore build to the story of coming of age.
In fact it is the way that Nigel’s songs tell a story from first track to last that make this an album that will surely make mine (and many others Top 10 of 2014). Repeated listens bring new delights and, let’s be honest, the near perfection of all of the songs made it jump to the front of my ever growing list of reviews.
And to think, here’s a man who had spent may years in the wilderness of rock cover bands …. perhaps there’s some hope for me, somewhere, yet?
“Long Way Down” will be released on the 5th December via Frontiers Records. Get it on your Christmas list …. NOW!
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