This is Gary Hughes’ sixteenth album under the Ten moniker. 16! I’ve been a fan since the debut, having first heard it when Now & Then’s Mark Ashton sent me an advance to review in the early days of this site. Over the years members have come and gone, with Gary the one constant, and the sound has varied also – moving from melodic rock/AOR through to hard rock and even melodic metal on occasion.

This time it’s a bit of everything – there’s some heavier numbers, but also a ton of memorable AOR friendly songs – the most of any Ten album in the last several years. And I’m happy to report that the quality of these songs is as good as ever. I love what I’m hearing and this album stands out as one of the band’s better ones in a long rich history of great music. Nice to hear Gary singing in that warm AOR tone so familiar with the debut back in 1996.

Essential for Ten fans and well worthy for recent era fence sitters.