Michael Thompson Band - Future Past

“Future Past” is the follow up to “How Long” that was released in 1989. Yeap, time moves with the speed of light… and 23 years may pass in a blink of an eye… but the fire to write and record music is not calming down… and that’s quite encouraging.

 

Michael Thompson is a rather famous studio session guitarist and has worked with some of the biggest names (Robin Beck, Cher, Doro, Richard Marx, Robert Tepper, and Bonnie Tyler among other) of pop & rock music. MTB is his personal project where he plays the music he enjoys the most… and in truth to be told, he did deliver a wonderful AOR/Westcoast album back in 1989.

 

Recently, he stated that he tried to keep the new MTB album “Future Past” in the same spirit as "How Long”. Of course, the new album has many elements from the debut… but this time, the music is more straightforward… it has more Survivor/Jim Peterik & classic rock influences without dropping the few hi-tech and more complex touches ala Seventh Key/Mike Slamer. Moreover, the production is very clear and powerful… great without a doubt.

 

This time Michael brought vocalist Larry King from Soleil Moon on board and they both have co-written the songs on “Future Past”. Larry has a warm/rockin’ voice that fits this kind of music properly. The other two new members of the band are the bass player Alan Berliant and the drummer Khari Parker.

 

The album contains some wonderful melodic rock/AOR tunes like “Hight Times”, “Future Past” (simply fantastic - I thought I was listening to Mike Slamer for a while), “When You Love Someone” (beautiful ballad), “End Game” & “Fight For Your Life” but the other ones are rather average… withholding the final work eventually. Nevertheless, “Future Past” is a solid album. I know it’s a bit challenging to beat “How Long”… and they didn’t succeed it… maybe next time…