Toby Hitchcock - Mercury's Down

[TageRyche]

Toby Hitchcock

Mercury's Down

Frontiers Records - 2011

No Artist Website

 

As a big fan of the group Pride of Lions, when I heard that one half of the singing component of the group was releasing a solo album I was pretty excited.

Toby Hitchcock has a powerful voice that can hit the stratosphere and the majority of the material on Mercury's Down works to that advantage.

The lead single "This Is The Moment" has a huge intro before launching into the song proper. Most of the songs are up tempo rockers, but a couple of the songs were slow tempo at least to start. "How To Stop" burned slowly before moving to a more rocking vibe. Unfortunately, I felt the song with the lyrics would've worked better at a slower pace for the entire song.

Breaking it down, there are 7 songs on the album that are really outstanding and one that is pretty good. "Let Go" is just OK. I didn't care for "Summer Nights In Cabo" though.

One of the biggest problems I had with the CD is the song "One Day I'll Stop Loving You". I liked the nice slow opening but then the song and Hitchcock step all over themselves with an amazingly overwrought delivery in the song's chorus that made me want to shut off the disc.

The other problem I had is one that is newly discovered by me. Hitchcock isn't a songwriter. Each and every track is written or co-written by other people. I never realized that with the three Pride of Lions CDs for some reason. It isn't something that is a complete mood killer, but call me old fashioned, outside of country music I prefer my singers to be the writers or co-writers on songs. Not every song of course but they should be able to write a song. Instead, Hitchock is a song interpreter. He's got a fantastic voice no doubt so this wouldn't keep me from listening to the songs, but it was a disappointment to learn.

As for the people involved in the writing for the disc, Eclipse guitarist Erik Martensson along with songwriter Miqael Persson wrote or co-wrote all the songs. Persson has worked with Martensson with the group W.E.T.

Martensson played must of the instruments on the album along with some appearances by Eclipse bandmates Magnus Henriksson on guitar and Magnus Ulfstedt on drums.

They know how to write a rip roaring rock song which makes the album a success in my book, but in the end when you learn how much involvement Hitchcock actually had in the creation of the album, it feels more like a group project with special guest star Toby Hitchcock rather than a true solo album.

 

GRADE B PLUS

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Thanks for reviewing this album.  It's been on my radar, but I think I'll hold off for now.  No reason other than I'm trying to be a bit more selective in my spending habits (I'm not doing particularly well).