Remember Rough Cutt? Quiet Riot? Yes? Then no doubt you are familiar with Paul Shortino. Chasing Your Dream is the fifth solo album from this renowned vocalist and while I can’t say I’m familiar with his other solo efforts I was all ready to give this a listen with an open mind. For the album he has drafted in an army of session musicians including Roland Bergmann (Mad Max), Michael Mueller (Jaded Heart) and Ralf Heyne (Doc Heyne) which may interest you but this doesn’t really change the fact that this is quite a dreary album.
This starts out okay with the mid paced ‘Remember You’ which is laden with that AOR sound and production. It’s plenty melodic and easy on the ears while the vocals come across with an impassioned bluesy tone that no doubt fans will be expecting. ‘To The Cross’ follows with an upbeat pace, and further into the album we are treated to a couple of heavy numbers such as ‘Nocturnal’ with its southern rock groove and metallic guitar sound, and the hard rocking ‘Side FX.’ With these exceptions, this album is made up of little more than the kind of sentimental ballads that would even put your average housewife to sleep.
The album seems to drift into a deeper state of slumber as we go along and while tracks like ‘Missing’ are tolerable, the likes of ‘Take My Heart and Run’ is the kind of weedy pop ballad that under normal circumstances would have me turning off in disgust. ‘Alone They Ride’ is the token dirt-in-the-face biker jam, albeit a very polite and safe one that no Hells Angel would be caught dead listening to. This actually has me thinking a little of Bon Jovi. I’m sure this album will have its supporters; those who are too set in their ways to own a computer, let alone an IPod and if they did it would probably contain the odd Celine Dion number next to Bon Jovi and Deep Purple but for the average MTUK reader with a taste for the heavy shit, take my advice and don’t buy this album.
http://www.paulshortino.com
