Robby VALENTINE – The Alliance [Japan Edition +1] (2018)

And finally it’s here: “The Alliance” (this Japan Edition with an exclusive bonus track], 11th album from Netherlands’ borderline genius musician, Robby VALENTINE, and what an accomplished affair it is.
The vocalist / multi-instrumentalist has come through considerable personal turmoil these last few years, reflected here in a recording that is equal parts constructive artiness, romantic longing and bleak reflection.

Thankfully, the passage of time has done nothing to cloud his musical vision… “The Alliance” is jam packed with the jaw droppingly intricate, hypnotic vocal arrangements that we’ve come to expect.
But this is now, and Valentine’s songwriting and production, percolated through years of experience, hard won success and debilitating illness, are the creation of an older, wiser artist.

That said, as usual, he returns from his regular lightning raids into Queen territory mixed with intelligent, elaborated melodic rock hooks.
Like the cathartic ‘Black Dog’, demonstrating a welcome loosening of Valentine’s previously heavy production grip, sketching it around a lone piano, then adding layers of percussion and stabs of airy brass. Or ‘Sons Of America’, where the rat-a-tat verses climax in a chorus of Queen-like bombastic magnificence.

Elsewhere, the never-knowingly-underdone arrangements and production have largely been streamlined, pared down. Where previously he trowelled on the gloss, the stacked harmonies and layered guitars of ‘Judgement Day’, ‘Soldiers Of Light’ and ‘Masters Of Our Minds’ now shimmer and swirl under a thin veneer of polish… and on an album arguably among his best work, even those tracks are outdone by two others.

The first, the bittersweet, relentlessly melodic ode to his daughter, ‘Eleanor Robyn’, stays the right side of sentimentality, becoming an angelic AOR hymn, seemingly beamed down from the genre’s peak moments in the Eighties.
‘Running On Empty’ even surpasses that. It’s a bona fide rock&pop concerto, gliding along on the rich tonal arrangements of Valentine’s invented orchestra, punctuated by awesome harmonies and hard rock guitars, rising to a memorably melodic third section and an operatic knockout punch. It adds greatly to an album of more depth and substance than we may have expected.

While Robby Valentine has a unique, unmistakable sound & style – you know when a RV is bein played – this talented muscian never repeat himself.
“The Alliance” might just be Robby Valentine’s Magnum Opus, and easily, one of ‘Album Of The Year’ for me.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

01 – The Alliance Theme
02 – Judgement Day
03 – Black Dog
04 – Sons Of America
05 – Running On Empty
06 – High As A Kite [Japan Bonus Track]
07 – Eleanor Robyn
08 – Soldiers Of Light
09 – The Bitter End
10 – Masters Of Our Minds
11 – Remember Who You Are

BUY IT !
www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KICP-1912
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