When Brian at Rockeyez turned PLACES OF POWER’s debut, “Now Is The Hour”, over for review I was excited as I was familiar with the projects two main players. Those being singer Philip Bardowell and bassist Bruce Turgon; Turgon of course was a member of FOREIGNER and LOU GRAMM’s solo band and then the Lou Gramm-led SHADOW KING while Bardowell was a one-time member of Christian rockers MAGDALAN and also a later day version of UNRULY CHILD. Bardowell has also had a couple stellar solo releases to his credit as well. So when the talents of these two combine I figured it would make for classy sounding FOREIGNER-influenced record. And you know what? I was right!
The album opens with “In Your Wildest Dreams” and within the first thirty seconds you get to hear Bardowell’s vintage GRAMM-esque vocals and you just get the feeling this is going to be a killer record! The song itself is a huge arena rocker with classy arrangement and killer production. The guitar sounds of Scott McKinstry have a bit of a George Lynch flavor to them and it all makes for a solid opening to the record.
The album continues with more FOREIGNER-like sounds on subsequent tracks like “Make Me Believe” and “Desires Of Your Heart”. It’s pretty amazing how uncanny Bardowell’s vocals are to primetime Lou Gramm at times. But that only tells part of the story as the music is also top-notch, classy AOR.
Further tracks such as “One Day” (check out the excellent guitar work on this one!), “The Passage “ and “Light Of My World” even have ever so slight progressive overtones, which further enhance the classy presentation of the album while “Hard To Love You” is a full-out rocker sounding of a heavier FOREIGNER at its best.
The album does finish on just a little bit of a weaker note in my opinion though as both “Path Of Least Resistance” and “Places Of Power” seem a bit “run of the mill” for my tastes. They certainly are not total throwaway tracks but just don’t seem to hold the quality of the rest of the record.
Overall this is classy hard rock/AOR affair with only a couple ever so slight bumps in the road along the way. If you’re a fan of FOREIGNER and/or Lou Gramm then definitely check this one out.
01. In Your Wildest Dream (5:07)
02. Make Me Believe (5:13)
03. Desires Of Our Hearts (5:45)
04. One Day (4:19)
05. I Live For You (4:45)
06. Secrets (5:04)
07. The Passage (4:35)
08. Always (4:49)
09. Hard To Love You (4:25)
10. Light Of My World (5:29)
11. Path Of Least Resistance (4:01)
12. Places Of Power (4:23)