STAN BUSH
DREAM THE DREAM

Released October 2010   

Stan Bush sadly isn’t a name that is one everyone’s lips though he really should be. He has been producing constantly great music for years now. 11 albums in Stan is back doing what he does best with an album of catchy light melodic rock with more hooks than a fisherman’s basket.  I could go on to bore you with a mini career retrospective but I would rather you visit his site and check out the man and his music for yourselves.

‘Never Hold Back’ is pretty much the template for an album of catchy melodic rockers, which tick all the boxes as far as hummability and sing-alongability go. Everything here is certainly beautifully crafted, though I fear it may be a little light for some.  Still whatever your marshmallow-threshold may be ‘I’m Still Here’ is still a minor classic of the genre, so smooth like a … well, like a marshmallow really. It’s all very soft, fluffy and sweetly satisfying. (OK so I’ll stop with the marshmallows now…)

The sound as a whole is clean and crisp throughout, and production as slick as anything you will have heard this year. ‘Don’t give up on Love’ has you itching to grab down those classic mid-eighties soft melodic rock records from the attic. Elsewhere the love song ‘Two Hearts’ does sound like later Foreigner. ‘Sam’s Theme’ that closes the album is also a pretty cool rocker.

Piano and acoustics are out for the plaintive ballad ‘In My Life’ it’s a beautiful controlled explosion of simmering, though understated passion that will have the crowd swaying and gazing at their significant other when Stan’s planned tour in support of the album comes to town. And the guitar has that warm Neal Schon-like glow and richness, it’s perfect in this context.

If there is one criticism of the album it is that it is all a bit mid-tempo. The converted will be very happy. For lovers of that softer kind of melodic rock and beautifully crafted songs.

Mark