Bailey - Long Way Down

Bailey

Long Way Down

by Yngwieviking at 18 November 2014, 3:58 PM

Only six month after the unexpected artistic/critical success of the THREE LIONS project, Nigel Bailey is under the Spotlight again with his first solo album “Long Way Down”. Built in a style relying, more or less in the same typical British AOR custom design!

Lot of emphasis has been given to the state of the art sonic production with at the helm the one and only, the ubiquitous Alessandro Del Vecchio (exEDEN’S CURSE / SILENT FORCE / EDGE OF FOREVER) who also play the keyboards and had recruited his fellows italian ex bandmates from AXE in order to complete the team line-up notably Alessandro Mori (MITCH MALLOY/PARIS) on drums and LIONVILLE ‘s Mario Percudani (exHUNGRYHEART/exSHINING LINE) on Lead Guitars.

Surprisingly, the sound is heavier than in the THREE LIONS record and if the DARE/MAGNUM/TEN influences are still obliviously there, it reveals a more epic influences like in the first single “In The Name of The King” or in the muscular title track.

Sometimes the more dogmatic AOR confomity is also overwhelming with some influences ranging from W.E.T to FM and co (“Dirty Little Secret”/“Love Falls Down” and “Ticket To Yesterday”), or in the less inspired middle tracks such as the insipid “Stay” and the ok “Somewhere In Oslo”.

On the flip side the album is also a guitar driven affair “Feed The Flames” or the groovy “Bad Reputation” and of course the closing number “Dirty Angel” which is the perfect final to sum up this disc.

The vocal performance of Nigel Bailey is faultless and clearly one of the most prominent quality of the whole album, and even if i still prefer the first album from the Trio of English Felid, (it never had such a balanced versatility but it sounded more like a coherent effort) it could be anyway a good investment for all the AOR afficionados and Melodic Hard Rock fans out there.