Strangeways - Age of Reason

I bet the album title stands for AOR (isn’t that obvious?)! These music conjurers have once more managed to drift me away to the good old days of this specific genre. After “Perfect World” in 2010 (reunited with Terry Brock and bassist David Steward), the least I can say is that Strangeways have been prolific; bringing forth an album which all vehement supporters will welcome with open arms. It just flows perfectly. Powerful compositions blend with charming ballads through Terry’s voice… Ian James Steward on guitar, Dave Moore on keyboards and Jim Drummond on drums expand their musical boundaries but remain true to what we call original melodic rock music.

 

Having a strong affinity for this kind of music, I found it easy to list songs that really gladdened my heart: “Run”, “Playin’ It Over”, “As We Fall”, “Call”, “Frozen” and “Long Road” just to name a few. Overall, the album demonstrates a classic Strangeways affair. The production as well as the mixing was done by Ian James Steward (John Lee worked on the latter too) and the band also did the mastering of the album. No ambivalence over this… “Age of Reason” like a true follow-up of “Perfect World” made me realize there is still inspiration nowadays. That is an encouraging thought…