By Luis Miguel Prada, viriAOR
” … Live Your Life an album that announces to have a position at the top at the end of the year … or at least in my book it will be”
Some time ago, before being with the viriAOR family, I would surely have let this artist go unnoticed and that is because I have become a bit negative with respect to the current times in the music scene, and the reasons for my negativity go without saying, but here comes the beauty of writing reviews and I don’t mean ranting about every album that comes out if that’s what you thought, it’s discovering new albums and artists, listening to them carefully over and over again until you capture the essence of the album (when they have it) and transmitting that to people – here comes the difficult part, and more when artists only go to the studio to comply with their record company without any new ideas, which is what abounds lately and hence much of my negativism.
We all know these companies and artists very well, but there are others who come in with fresh ideas, who not only record to fulfill and sell, oh well, they also make the work of those of us who write much easier. Below you will find a clear example of this.
Since the middle of last year, Michael Kratz had released a couple of singles that he would later include on the album, including We All Live Is The Nation and Never Take Us Alive and Liying. The album could fit perfectly into the AOR / West Coast with songs like We All Live Is The Nation featuring Guitarist Dom Brown (Duran Duran), but if we go further, we’ll hear a creaking guitar giving way to a strong impulse. Funk in Never Take Us Alive remembering the always Great Ole Børud that we love to talk about, or Shade’s Sophisticated Pop that will remind you of Prefab Sprout, Love and Money. Jhonny Hates Jazz and the entire Sofistipop scene of the late 80s in Great Britain.
Live Your Life consists of 12 songs and we find 2 guys who have known each other since school Steve Lukather and Michael Landau, on the other hand another old friend of theirs, keyboardist David Garfield to complete the super stars of the album. Even so, and going back to my negativism a bit, this is not synonymous with the album being a bomb, if you don’t have fresh ideas or good compositions, or by reviving and bringing together all the Porcaros you’re going to have a great album, but if the artist and record company that call them have a clear idea of what they want, and they don’t just call them to fill the credits so much Luke, Landau and Garfield who have known each other for more than 30 years will move like fish to water in the studio , and they will contribute what is necessary to make it a great album and that is precisely what has happened here.
Game of Love (Over And Over) returns to the sound that both Michael and we are passionate about; yes, the AOR, in case there was any doubt. With a simple theme without many arrangements, but a chorus that you will not forget in a long time. Great song! Michael immediately goes on to show us his most intimate side in Lying accompanied by an acoustic guitar, probably Luke on guitar.
The album is coming to an end and with 3 songs remaining, Michael announces it with Bye Bye on many occasions. After 12 songs and more than 50 minutes, nostalgia invades me, there have been 12 wonderful songs, which make Live Your Life an album that announces to have a position at the top at the end of the year … or at least in my book it will be.
