Label - Rare Records
Track Listing:
01 – Your Heart’s Desire
02 – Quicksand
03 – Falling Down
04 – Starchaser
05 – My Sorry Cinderella
06 – One Day Older
07 – The Beholder
08 – Leave This Town
09 – Kung Fu Master
10 – All I Own
11 – Revolution
12 – Make A Difference (CD Bonus Track)
I first came across the vocal talents of Kev Bayliss in late 2009 via a cover-mounted cd with Classic Rock magazine entitled ones to watch in 2010. Upon said cd was a track by Kev's former group, Voodoo Johnson, titled Bad Habit, which immediately grabbed my attention. I quickly tracked down the two Eps that the band had put out and was blown away by tracks such as Seven years, Nowhere Inbetween and Broken. Quickly Voodoo Johnson became one of my favorite bands, with Kev joining the likes of Sean Harris (Diamond Head), Tony Martin (Black Sabbath, Empire, Cage, Giuntini Project), Glenn Hughes, and Ronnie James Dio as one of my favorite vocalists! Then after releasing a great debut album (10,000 Horses) Kev was to announce his decision to part company with Voodoo Johnson in late 2010 citing music differences as the reason. I was heartbroken, I had held high hopes for Voodoo Johnson and prayed that that was not to be the last that I would hear of Kevs amazing vocals.
Luckily, Kev quickly announced his plans to release a solo album, and now almost eleven months later, here it is in the form of The Project.
Joining Kev for this album are, Kev Bartlett (Drums), Nick Daniel (Bass / Guitars), Lucky Singh (Guitars), and former 30 Seconds To Mars Guitarist Kevin Drake. Together they have produced, in my honest opinion one of, if not the best album of 2011!
With The Project Kev has moved away from the angry heavy riff driven rock of his previous band, Voodoo Johnson, and adopted to folllow a more melodic, dare I say musically diverse direction all together.
Opening with Your Heart’s Desire, a finally crafted guitar driven pop song, with some great melodic hooks and some fine heart felt lyrics from Kev, as well as a great vocal line to boot. Next up is the lead single from the album in the form of Quicksand, a more poppy track with a distinctive indie feel to it, but once again a great song!
Falling Down follows, which in my honest opinion has to be a contender for the best song of 2011. A beautiful piece of modern guitar pop rock. A great song with an amazing vocal delivered from Kev!
Starchaser is up next, another great song, My Sorry Cinderella follows quickly, with its music box intro before exploding into great little rocking track, that I absolutely adore!
Next up is a track that fans of Kevs facebook sites should be familiar with as it’s been posted there for a while in rough acoustic demo form, One Day Older, which even in its unpolished form was amazing. Now finished and polished it just blows me away, a track that I can see myself listening to for years to come, truly outstanding, along with the equally brilliant Leave This Town which is up next. The excellent Kung Fu Master rocks things up a little again, allowing Kev to show just what a great rock vocal he can deliver. All I Own is up next, and is yet another contender for song of the year, the quality just never drops with this album!
Revolution closes out the album proper, another great song that has a great melody and some fantastic vocals along with its epic feel.
The pre order cds come with the bonus track, Make A Difference, which is another great little Gem. This album proves that Kev is not only one of the finest vocalists out there today, on a level with any of the biggest names in the business, but he is also a stunning songwriter as together with Kevin drake and Lucky Singh he has produced an album of twelve glorious tracks. A stunning and contemporary mix of pop and rock with indie sensibilities, and quite possibly my favorite album of 2011.
Although all twelve tracks are brilliant my favorites have to include, Falling Down, All I Own, One Day Older, Kung Fu Master, Revolution and Your Hearts Desire!
This album is very highly recommended!
Rating - 10/10
Website - Kev Bayliss
