Newcomer X-Drive is the brainchild of guitarist Jeremy Brunner who put this band together with star vocalist Keith St. John (Burning Rain, Montrose). Together the pair wrote all the album’s songs and Jeremy co-produced with the legendary producer Andy Johns, who sadly passed away not long after completing this album.
Mixed by Wyn Davis and joined by James Lomenzo on bass, there has been a lot of money, time and effort put into this and it shows.
Keith St. John sounds a million bucks on this album – I prefer his vocals here over Burning Rain and his solo work. He’s just completely in the groove and speaks to my tastes perfectly.
There’s nothing overly complicated in the music itself, we’ve heard this kind of record before, but it is classic American hard rock done very very well. With so much great music coming out of Scandinavia, the Americans have been a little left behind. So it’s great to get a well written, well produced album in this vein.
Brunner’s riffs drive the album, delivering two solid hard rockers with Love’s A Bitch and Get Your Rock On to kick off the album.
But it’s the groove infused Steppin On The Rock that really gets my attention. The moody ballad Baby Bye Bye continues to grow the stature of this record, with the catchy California driving it over the top.
Lay Me Down is a moody, darker rocker that fits in beautifully. A great vocal here from Keith.
Fly Beyond The Angels is a very nice sentimental ballad and the mid-tempo groove of Just Can’t Stay is also solid.
Love Breaks The Fool is a enjoyable mid-tempo melodic rocker to finish.
The only thing that I could suggest might have made this even better is a couple of more uptempo tunes. The guys already sound in the right groove, so it would have been cool to see them really let go. The majority of the album is best described as mid-tempo, but there’s still enough variety here to please most folks and as stated earlier, the production, the performances and the songs are all of high quality.
Definitely worth checking out!
