No need for any introduction to Neal Schon. The guitar legend delivered his long awaited new solo album late last year and has been almost universally praised and appreciated.

So I will simply add to the chorus of platitudes that this wonderful piece of work has already been laiden with.

One of Neal's most expressive solo instrumental albums to date, the 15 track/70 minute record touches a myriad of emotions and musical styles, all under the direction of producer/multi-instrumentalist and songwriter (plus new Journey drummer) Narada Michael Walden.

The album sounds a million bucks and is one of those types of records that you can just hear all the time and effort that's gone into it. Smooth, sultry, rocking and complex. Love it!

I absolutely love this album. It has everything I love about the two principles behind it and a added freshness that has been missing in some recent AOR releases.

Art is Work Of Art – that is, vocalist Lars Safsund, who is his usual blindingly good self, delivering a classic vocal that gives me the best of WOA, but more so, I hear him stretching out with some of the more adventurous material on offer and he knocks it out of the park.

Illusion is one of my favourite pomp songwriters, Grand Illusion’s songwriter/producer Anders Rydholm. Fans of Grand Illusion can hear Anders’ trademark pomp AOR all over this record and there are a few tracks which could easily be Grand Illusion tracks.

But there’s so much more on offer here. There are a few tracks that are completely bananas. It’s part classic rock opera and part falsetto overture and it sounds so good. Lars is extraordinary in his varied vocal delivery. There’s Queen, ELO and Styx influences throughout.

But it isn’t every track – its mixed in and around some traditional WOA style keyboard-AOR mixed in with some typical Grand Illusion pomp. There is a good dose of piano and some sentimental ballads, but also a few driving guitar tracks.

All in all it is quite the mix, but the superb quality of the songs and the performances make it work cohesively.

I won’t make a point of highlighting any particular songs as id like the listener to hear it fresh start to finish. Just be assured that this is a quality piece of work.

Not sure how to categorize this one. Perhaps if Poison were a Christian band from the Midwest?

Martin Perticone is the Argentinian behind the band, but to my ears there is still a lot of work to do to take the next step and compete with today’s melodic rock artists.

The production and mix feel underdone and the songs are a little awkward in places as a result.

Steve Overland (FM) takes lead vocals on the opening track, but I didn’t even pick it was him such is the mix. Eric Martin takes lead vocal on two versions of the same song – a present enough acoustic driven pop rocker. After those tracks there is only 6 others to take in and while uplifting in its premise, the finished product feels like half an album. It needed more songs and a sharper sound to make an impact. And something completely different for the artwork. It looks like record for an independent rap artist.

A nice throwback to old school harmonies and a mixed acoustic/electric uptempo approach, but like I said, still a lot of work to do.

Guitarist and founder Andreas Gullstrand said Creye have never sounded better and I’d have to agree. The superb pure Scandi-AOR debut has been bettered and expanded upon on ‘Creye II’ and the transition to new vocalist August Rauer seems complete with no interruption to the sonics or pure AOR fans fell in love with the minute the band were introduced to the world.

Creye ‘II’ uses a more contemporary production template, with more effects, some programming that give it a strong modern edge, but the songs and the vocals especially are pure 80s at heart.

The upbeat and free flowing tempo give the album a sense of urgency, and with only one ballad you might think its overkill. But the fact is there is so much texture within the songs, moments of reflection, big choruses, passages of moodier moments and then some moments of more prominent guitar, which comes as a contrast to the layers upon layers of keyboards and piano.

So many song highlights to speak of. At 13 tracks it might seem a little long, but the album clocks in at 42 minutes, so these songs are all straight down to the business of delivering heartfelt emotions and big choruses.

All in all, this is quite wonderful ‘old school contemporary’ record wrapped in the pure keyboard driven AOR of Scandi-80s pop/rock and the programming and production techniques of today. The production and mix are first rate, which is vital to making the record sound so fresh. It could easily have been a muddy mess if not done correctly.