SABU – Between The Light [remastered +3] (2014)

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British label Z Records continue their fine re-issue series of Melodic Hard Rock icon PAUL SABU’s back catalogue, all Remastered & Repackaged. Now it’s time for Sabu’s “Between The Light”, featuring 3 bonus tracks.

During the ’90s, although the AOR and melodic rock heyday of the previous decade had passed and grunge was king, a few artists still carried on with the Japanese market providing a lifeline. Paul Sabu was one of these and after the successful release of ‘In Dreams’ (featured HERE) in 1993, he signed with a German label.
Paul re-formed his band with Bonfire members, and changed the moniker to simply SABU, releasing a self-titled album in ’96. Thanks to that energised CD, the blueprint was firmly in place and Sabu saw no reason to change it.

“Between The Light” arrived in 1998 and was even more solid, meaty an hard rockin’ than the previous.
The opening couplet of “Spitfire” and “Let A Sleeping Dog Lie” were full of the usual bombast and self-belief that we had come to expect, whilst “Bring Us Love” is a synth heavy throwback to the ‘Heartbreak’ and Kidd Glove eras.
The glorious anthemic strains of “If I’d Never Asked You To Dance”, a real lighters-in-the- air moment is one of his finest ballads, but next “Til Your Hearts Calm” is a pure rush of adrenaline that will make sure your heart is anything but calm.

“You Might Get Stuck” is pulsating rocker akin House Of Lords, while a curve ball in the shape of Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made To Love Her” shows it to be a rocked-up homage to one of Motown’s most famous sons.
With “Get It While It’s Hot” finishing the album in great style, these are the finest minutes that the late nineties had to offer.
Not even the crystal ball adorned cover could have foretold that it would be almost a decade before the Paul Sabu would release another album, a decade bereft of one of the genre’s essential contributors.

With strong songwriting, musicianship and production, “Between The Light” would prove over time to be one of the ’90s lost treasures. When the depressive grunge had swept all before it, only a select few were carrying the flag for the true Melodic Hard Rock in 1998.
If anything, Sabu has proven to be one of rocks survivors. No matter how many sh#t Seattle had thrown at the world at the turn of the nineties, here was a musicians that was ready to buck the trend and stand or fall by what he believed in.
And “Between The Light” is one of Sabu’s finest moments.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

01 – Spitfire
02 – Let A Sleeping Dog Lie
03 – Mind Over Matter
04 – Bring Us Love
05 – If I’d Never Asked You To Dance
06 – Til Your Heart’s Calm
07 – I Just Ain’t
08 – You Might Get Stuck
09 – I Was Made To Love Her
10 – Get It While It’s Hot
11 – Made Of Rock (bonus track)
12 – Hang Tough (bonus track)
13 – Rock And A Hard Place (bonus track)

Paul Sabu – vocals, guitar, keyboards
Angel Schleifer – guitar, backing vocals
Jörg Deisinger – bass, backing vocals
Derek Smith – drums
Tony Montana – add. drums

BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Light-Plus-Paul-Sabu/dp/B00IICJ8VE
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