2012 Remainder Reviews - Jimi Jamison - Never Too Late

Jimi Jamison
Never Too Late
Frontiers Records - 2012
http://www.jimijamison.com

Billed as a Jimi Jamison solo album, I have to wonder if Frontiers Records thinks we are all stupid.

Bear in mind that while I actually like the songs on Never Too Late, this CD being a Jamison solo album could possibly violate those truth in advertising laws.

The album is filled with a bunch of up tempo rockers that capture Jamison in fine voice. The music soars with those vocals and it would generally be considered a really good release if you just listened to the album and didn't read the liner notes.

Three songs stand out from the rest for me. All of them are rockers. Despite not being completely sold on the lyrics of "Street Survivor", the song got a thumbs up from me. The album closer "Walk On (Wildest Dreams)" was good as well. However, the best song was "Not Tonight". With the big backing vocals giving the song a big lift it was pure melodic rock happiness!

Unfortunately for me, I did read the liner notes. It would appear that Jimi Jamison showed up, cut his vocals and called it a day. He had about as much to do with the creation of the album as a guy asking "Do you want fries with that" has to do with the success of McDonald's.

I would've been happier if Frontiers had called this The Erik Martensson Project. Why?

Well let's run down the list of what Martensson did on Never Too Late. He produced the album. He played lead and rhythm guitar, as well as bass and keyboards. He also provided backing vocals. Oh, and he co-wrote every song on the album.

That last one would normally not be an issue, but Jamison was not one of the co-writers on any song. He didn't write the words or music for any of the tracks on HIS own solo album. I don't know the track record for Jamison in terms of songwriting, but this is just embarrassing. How can something be yours if you had nothing to do with creating it?

All the song publishing credits are listed to Frontiers Records no less. Doesn't that mean that any publishing royalties for use of the songs go straight to the label?

Musically, the album is very good. I'd give it a B Plus for that reason alone. But in fairness to this not being a REAL Jimi Jamison solo album, I can't really give it a grade at all.

Much like the Toby Hitchcock solo album Mercury's Down, the singer is simply a guest appearance on his allegedly own release.

It may be never too late, but in this case it is entirely too late to avoid calling Never Too Late a farce.