Produced by Brian Tankersley, Joe English and George Cocchini
Original line-up:
Joe English
- Lead vocals, drums
Paul Brannon
- Bass
George Cocchini
- Guitars
+ Paul Mills - Keyboards
Tracklisting:
What you need
The master
Take the cross
The first stone
Easy street
I will follow you
Yield to the spirit
The joy of the lord
Children of the light
Through the veil
Musicstyle:
Classic 80s Keyboard AOR with Poprock influences. Sounds like a mix between JOURNEY, WHITE HEART and some RICK CUA.
This Christian American band was formed around lead vocalist/drummer Joe English. I don't have any info on them and can't confirm if this is their only release, but it's worth to check out because there is some good 80s Keyboard AOR on it. There is a little help from STEVE CAMP concerning the songwriting.
Opener "What you need" couldn't be a better opener. This song is a fantastic Classic 80s cheerful uptempo AOR/FM-rocker with a superb chorus and lovely pure AOR keys. This wonderful track is sounding like early FM, JOURNEY and SUNSHINE JIVE. The following two tracks are much softer, but still nice to listen to. "The master" is a calmer AOR Ballad like WHITE HEART, while "Take the cross" is nice hookladen keyboard AOR like ALLIES.
Then we get to hear a great 80s typed uptempo AOR track titled "The first stone", not as hard-hitting as the opening track, but still a good enjoyable song of which the tight rhythm reminds me of ROBERT TEPPER. Side-A closes with "Easy street", a nice lighter AOR/Poprocker like IDLE EYES, THE OUTFIELD.
Side-B opens with the calmer semi AOR ballad "I will follow you" (like WHITE HEART). The following 3 songs are again pretty good and very much in the AOR style. First there is "Yield to the spirit", a great midtempo AOR/Pomprocker. "The joy of the lord" is a good uptempo AOR rocker like RICK CUA. And finally "Children of the night" is a fantastic uptempo AOR rocker int he classic 80s sound of JOURNEY. This last mentioned song is almost as good as the opening track and together these songs are showing how good the 80s AOR sound was.
The CD closes with "Through the veil", an instrumental track. THE ENGLISH BAND wasn't an English band. They were a good American AOR/Poprockband that had some great tunes on their CD 'What you need'. Recommendable to the fans of the 80s sounds of JOURNEY.
There's only one place you
can maybe get a copy of the album and that is by e-mailing ROBERT
PANCUR or by checking his AOR online store TARGET
RECORDS. Maybe he can help you getting a copy of the album.
