Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Review: From The Inside “Visions”


AOR busy bee Danny Vaughn (Tyketto, Vaughn) is back with a long-awaited follow up to the 2004 debut by his side band From The Inside, which we have reviewed previously. Much like the debut record, “Visions” is a triumph of AOR goodness that brings back memories of rock radio of the late 80s. Featuring slick guitars (Jimi Bell from House of Lords, folks), keyboards, a white tiger on the cover, and of course, the outstanding vocal talents of Danny Vaughn, From The Inside aims to give the fans exactly what they crave. Again, this is the closest Danny gets to the classic Tyketto sound.

Comparing the two From The Inside records is like picking between milk versus dark chocolate. Each is a decent slab of melodic rock, but each has a slightly different taste. Lyrically, we deal with similar themes of inspiration, empowerment, and positivity. "Light Years", the lead off track to "Visions", is a tour de force that has it all. The momentum continues with the excellent uptempo rocker "Making Waves", which features a blistering guitar solo. The next few songs are okay but don't measure up to the brilliance of the first two tracks. The ballads this time around are not clicking with me as the debut release, with exception of "One More Night In Heaven". Just like the strong beginning of the disc, we end on high notes with two more peppy and catchy rockers in "Push Me Off" and "Telemetry".

Upon closer analysis, it looks like my tastes gravitate to the songs penned by Vaughn.

iPOD-worthy: 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

Danny Vaughn on MySpace. Official site.

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