Thursday, November 28, 2013

MICHAEL FURLONG - Breakaway (1987) restored audio

MICHAEL FURLONG - Breakaway (1987) restored audio
Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

Mr. MICHAEL FURLONG released his debut on a major record company (Atlantic) in 1985 but soon was dropped by the label. The now legendary Music For Nations pick up Michael for a second offering, almost entirely recorded by himself.
"Breakaway" is pure Melodic Rock with the classic American AOR sound & style from the second half of the eighties plenty of hook laden songs, ear-catchy melodies and keyboards galore.
To my ears Furlong brings to mind Steve Perry solo works, just check the soaring "Steal The Night Away". Also traces of Benny Mardones - both in songwriting and vocal color - can be clearly appreciated on the wonderful semi-ballad "Savin' The Best For You", the radio-rocker "Walkin' The Streets Again" and the Michel Bolton-like "You Better Watch Your Step".
Another favorite is the pumping and more guitar oriented "Turn The World Around", always retaining the melody and keyboard layers.

MICHAEL FURLONG - Breakaway (1987) restored audio back cover

"Breakaway" was the last album from Michael Furlong as since the beginning of the nineties he is dedicated to tribute Tom Petty coast to coast across the US in Festivals and Casinos.
This is not the quite bad vinyl-rip floating around, nor the Retrospect CD release (which has been poorly taken from vinyl btw).
This file is a fresh LP capture, de-crackled and cleaned by myself. However, I have maintained the re-arranged Retrospect song sequence as it works better than the original vinyl, and added a couple of bonus, one of them the b-side from the only single of the album.
Really enjoyable American Melodic Rock / AOR stuff.


01 - Turn The World Around
02 - Steal The Night Away
03 - Savin' The Best For You
04 - Walkin' The Streets Again
05 - Breakaway
06 - You Better Watch Your Step
07 - Thru My Eyes
08 - San Francisco
09 - When Will I See You Again
10 - True Fine Mama (Bonus Track)
11 - Cold Eyes (Bonus Track)

Michael Furlong: vocals, guitars, bass, drums & percussion
Lener Gousetis: synthesizers
Rich Haines: electric piano, synths
Rick Keefer, Kit Ebersbach: additional keyboards
Chuck Ruff: additional drums
Terry Petersen: additional bass
Rich & Dan Haines, Neil Delaforce, Angelo Jensen: backing vocals






MICHAEL FURLONG Breakaway
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Monday, November 25, 2013

VAN STEPHENSON - Found In A Drawer (1990) [unreleased]

VAN STEPHENSON - Found In A Drawer

What can I add about the great VAN STEPHENSON? Gifted voice and senior master in songwriting.
This is another bunch of demos circa 1990. The original tape sound is pretty bad, so I tried to restore the audio by myself in my little home studio.
As requested, this is a revamped post from years ago.
Get it while it's hot.

01 - Above Suspicion
02 - Little White Truth
03 - Castles In The Air
04 - Bone Deep
05 - Grand Illusion
06 - Wish It Away
07 - Physician Heal Thyself
08 - Pipes Of Peace
09 - Midnight TV
10 - Never In A Million Years




VAN STEPHENSON Found In A Drawer
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Monday, November 04, 2013

TANDYM - 2F2G (2000)

TANDYM - 2F2G (2000)
Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

TANDYM hails from Atlanta, Georgia, where started as a trio at the beginning of the nineties. Their first self-released album with strong '80s influences received positive reviews, followed by this "2F2G" (Too Far Too Gone) in the year 2000.

Still retaining the classic melodies from debut, Tandym's "2F2G" is more melodic rock / radio rock oriented with cleaner guitars. There's nice choruses and easy to the ear arrangements sometimes recalling the late eighties Canadian scene.
To me their first CD is better in terms of musicality and retro-stylings, but "2F2G" is the one requested by a reader, and I decided to post it because it's extremely rare.
Decently recorded, produced & released by the band through their own label, "2F2G" is not essential at all, just a nice listening and one more for the rarities collection.


01 - What You Feel
02 - Too Far Too Gone
03 - Worry About You
04 - Living On The Edge
05 - Holed My Hand
06 - My Eyes
07 - No Reason
08 - Understanding
09 - Out Of The Blue
10 - Battlelines
11 - Feels Like Summer

Jay Saffold - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Scott Goodfellow - Vocals, Keyboards
Jimmy Baughman - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Additional Musicians:
Rob Peterson - Bass
David Brown - Backup Vocals on 1, 7
Thomas Journey (TJ) - Acoustic Guitar on 3




TANDYM 2F2G
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