TED POLEY – Beyond The Fade (2016)

TED POLEY always will be ‘the voice’ of Danger Danger, but with the band on hiatus and Bruno Ravel releasing the stupendous The Defiants record, it was time for a Ted Poley solo album, “Beyond The Fade“, to be released on Frontiers Music this Friday.
If The Defiants album will be on most ‘Top 10 of the Year lists’, let me tell you “Beyond The Fade” puts Ted Poley in the same ranking, easily his best solo record ever and some kind of a continuation to DD’s cracking album Screw This.

With songs penned by brothers Tom and James Martin (Vega), the sound of the record is nothing else but Ted Poley at his best, with immediately recognizable hooklines, amazing guitar work, immaculate production and total ’80s attitude.
Alessandro Del Vecchio is at charge not only of various instruments, but also as arranger and producer. He had the ability to keep Poley’s voice at front and still the layers of guitars / keys surround you.

After the catchy opener “Let’s Start Something”, with “Everything We Are” comes the first highlight of “Beyond The Fade”. This is melodic hard rock / punchy AOR at its best. An uptempo and classic late ’80s gem that grabs you at once and leaves you hungry for more.
“Hands Of Love” brings back the classic Danger Danger sound while in “Stars” we are dealing with a monstrous AOR song. Beautiful, in-your-face with a chorus line to die for, “Stars” is, indeed, stellar.

“Higher”, one of my personal favorites, is yet another killer melodic rock track that includes every little thing that we love from this type of music.
“The Perfect Crime” is perhaps the closest to the ballad structure with Issa’s strong vocals singing a duet with Ted, setting up a solo which allows for both singers to up the key on the chorus and showcase their vocal range.

As it’s a trademark in Ted Poley’s works (solo or with DD), another amazing feature on “Beyond The Fade” is the use of the harmonised vocals through the album.
This is not easy to achieve, so kudos to Del Vecchio’s production as we have huge choruses filled with tons of harmonised vocals which make for a big stadium rock sound.
There’s also great ’80s sounding guitars – courtesy of the skilled Mario Percudani. As example, his use of reverse delay on “Hands Of Love” belt out some special guitar riffs both at the start of the song as well as towards the end, where his multi-octave spanning solo sets up an epic ending. Equally, the blinding solos on “Where I Lost You” are a must.

“Beyond The Fade” is a collection of 11 terrific AOR / Melodic Hard Rock songs in its purest form, lead by an exceptional vocalist. Ted Poley is in great form on this album, perhaps, the best of his career. The man has a natural instinct for a song’s melody and always stays with it. Also, he’s never straining, nor putting himself out of range.
Musically all feels extremely tight, in large part a testament to the band that Del Vecchio put together for this project as well as the production that both he and Ted crafted into each of the tracks.
For the style of music, there is nothing on the album which one could find lacking, excessive or misplaced which in itself makes for a great listen, even if the style of music is not your thing.
One of the ‘albums of the year‘ for sure.

01. Let’s Start Something
02. Everything We Are
03. Hands Of Love
04. The Perfect Crime
05. Stars
06. Higher
07. Where I Lost You
08. You Won’t See Me Cryin’
09. We Are Young
10. Sirens
11. Beneath The Stars

Ted Poley: Lead Vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio: Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Mario Percudani: Guitars
Anna Portalupi: Bass
Issa: duet vocal on “The Perfect Crime”

PRE ORDER:
www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Fade-Ted-Poley
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