Beggars & Thieves must hold some kind of record in making comebacks. The fact is, every new record they have made is some kind of come back. It seems like they are splitting up after each release. On the other hand, B&T has been a duo since their debut so a reunion isn’t that hard to make happen!
The band started out in the early 90’s and consisted of main men Louie Merlino (vocals) and Ronnie Mancuso (guitar) together with Bobby Borg (Warrant, drums) and Phil Soussan (ex-Ozzy, bass). They landed a big deal with Atlantic records and released their self titled debut album in 1990. A brilliant record, full of great melodic hard rock. Why that album didn’t sell millions is beyond me, but it didn’t and the band split up. After that Merlino and Mancuso released two very good albums as a duo, Look What You Create and The Grey Album, both with years and years between them, and now the boys have decided to give it yet another go. And what a great idea that turned out to be, because this is their best effort since their debut.
The guys plays soft melodic hard rock with a twitch of AOR, but the fact is, these guys has a very personal sound and sounds like no one else. Opener ”We Come Undone” is just great. There are Journey influences in the song, but they never take over. ”Oil And Water” is a brilliant, completely cheese-less ballad, ”Beautiful Losers” is a melodic killer, ”Stranded” is pure brilliance with a melody to die for and ”Wash Away” is a fantastic ballad that deserves to be a big hit.
They end the whole tasty musical pastry with what might be the best melodic track of the year, namely the album’s title track. Again, these guys really deserve to sell millions. So if you’re into melodic rock and AOR, if you think that Journey is a fantastic act and if you believe that personality in songs is a big deal, then this CD will be right up your alley. Everybody should own a copy of this album.
Jon Wilmenius (8/10)
Tracklist:
1 We Come Undone
2 Oil & Water
3 Innocence
4 Never Gonna See You Again
5 Beautiful Losers
6 Seven Seconds
7 Stranded
8 Wash Away
9 Midnight Blue
10 We Are The Brokenhearted
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