JAC DALTON – Icarus [remastered] (2014)

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After recording a Classic Rock / Country crossover album during the last decade, Aussie based American singer JAC DALTON changed his musical focus to more Melodic Rock sounds, releasing “Icarus” around two years ago.
Now Jac Dalton is about to present a new CD early next year, meanwhile is re-issuing “Icarus” in a remastered form (new Digipak presentation as well) plus a new song from the forthcoming album.

Jac Dalton is supported by a team of outstanding musicians (Graham Greene, a renowned leading guitarist from Down Under to mention just one) to hone the fantastic record that is “Icarus”.
One of the best things about this album is the perfect balance between musical diversity and cohesion. Jac mix Classic rock with AOR / Melodic Rock with ease, and all sound natural.
On “Icarus” there are fast-paced songs with pumping bass lines and feisty guitar riffs, like the driven hard rockin’ “Suck Bang Blow” and the terrific “Armed And Dangerous” with its outstanding guitar shredding.

All is balanced with more mellow, radio-friendly and keyboard-driven tunes which could be mistaken easily for Bon Jovi or the Revolve-era Danger Danger as happens with the breezy “Good To Go” and “For Your Love”.
Throw in the killer track “Locked Cocked & Ready To Rock” and you’ll find an album that suspects it is destined to be a long lost gem.

“Waterline” is extremely melodious with an immediate Bon Jovi (Have A Nice Day era) lead guitar hook, which pervades through the entire song. A slightly slower, musically sleazy sound comes in here, though the vocals keep the track straight on course. Background keyboards come in roughly halfway through the song for a few seconds to just provide a brief change before getting back into the dirty bass sound that provides the majority of the music for this track.
A beautiful wailing guitar tone in the eponymous track “Icarus”, with its bluesy flavor, is a deliberate throwback to Dalton’s past as well as a tribute to his Southern heritage, making this song an excellent one and one of the album’s highlights.

My favorites, though, are the radio-rock ready classic waves of “Eye Of The Storm”, and final track “State Of Rock”, a guilty pleasure for each and every 1980s AOR fan.
Jac also throws in a cover, a really difficult one to do; AC/DC’s “Back In Black”. Jac has arranged this classic in a melodic way, adding a sharp acoustic guitar alongside the electric, resulting in a cool version that its absolutely much more melodius than the original, yet also much more faster in tempo.
The bonus, new cut “Roll With The Punches” is another catchy melodic rocker with lots of hooks & energy, and leaves hungry to listen the new album right now.

Jac Dalton’s “Icarus” is one of the most organic, soulful Melodic Hard Rock albums I heard in long, long time.
Chances are that if “Icarus” had been issued thirty years ago it would have proved a staple of US FM Radio effortlessly. Now, it has a fight on its hands with the Vikings and Teutons shipping this sort of quality high end melodic rock by the ton, though with a fair wind and some luck there is nothing to say Jac Dalton’s music won’t get heavily rotated somewhere thus hopefully avoiding the ‘much-sought-after-obscurity’ tag.
It will be visiting my CD player regularly, that’s for sure, and we seriously encourage the purchase of this little gem.
ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED.

01 – Waterline
02 – For Your Love
03 – Eye Of The Storm
04 – Armed And Dangerous
05 – Locked, Cocked, Ready To Rock
06 – Good To Go
07 – Icarus
08 – Back In Black
09 – Suck Bang Blow
10 – State Of Rock
11 – Roll With The Punches (bonus track) *

* New track 2014 – digital bonus with Digipak CD purchase

Jac Dalton – lead vocals
Graham Greene – guitars
Annemieke – guitars
Jim Awram – bass
Troy Brazier – drums
Jason Dohrmann – keyboards, bass
Donna G – backing vocals

BUY IT !
www.jacdalton.com/music/buy-jac-dalton-cds.html
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