JAMES CHRISTIAN - Meet The Man
October 20, 2004, 19 years ago
(Frontiers)
Never was a House Of Lords fan (Sahara was kinda cool though, in retrospect), but man, comeback album The Power And The Myth was awesome. Zeppelin-esque, dramatic, intelligent... that thing ruled. Now vocalist James Christian is back with his second solo album, and I'm underwhelmed. The guy's a great singer with a dimensionless voice. By that I mean, he sings technically well and with bluesy passion, but his God-given pipes are middle, mean, medium, average, if not a bit smoky and pliable. Musically, Meet The Man is surrendered and syrupy AOR. No apologies here for a stack of easy listening '80s ballads and mild rockers, made all the worse by the halting, stiff grooves that result from "Roland Drums" and "Keyboards Programming, Samples." The usual bunch of Italian Frontiers-men create this housewifey dreck, and all I can say is keep making House Of Lords albums, 'cos that thing was a friggin' masterpiece.
