PAGES – Future Street [Japan remastered AOR CITY 1000 series]

Sony Music Japan has started a campaign titled AOR CITY 1000 featuring a Low-priced Reissue on 100 classic AOR / AC albums from their back catalog, many of them out of print or hard to find. This is a limited offer (ending March 2017) with the incredible price around U$S 9 each CD (or 1000 Japanese Yen, hence the name of the campaign).
Among the 100 titles there’s albums by Toto, LeRoux, Balance, Airplay and many other gems, but the interesting ones are the hard to find (or at ridiculous prices) artists / albums such as this pre-Mr. Mister Richard Page band PAGES ans their second effort “Future Street“, remastered.

Few months after their self-titled debut album, Pages went back to the studio to record their follow-up entitled “Future Street”. Charles ‘Icarus’ Johnson joined on acoustic and electric guitar, and George Lawrence was brought in on drums.
Once again produced by Bobby Colomby, the album blended the finely crafted overtones of the first record with a somewhat hard-edged rock&pop sound with progressive overtones. Additional musicians on “Future Street” included Kenny Loggins (backing vocals and songwriting on “Who’s Right Who’s Wrong”), and top class cats like George Hawkins, Joey Trujillo, Jai Winding and more.

“Future Street” represented the first of many stages in the transformation of Richard Page and Steve George from pop-fusion artists to big time rock stars with Mr. Mister.
The opening track, the energetic “I Do Believe In You” peaked at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s one of my favorites, later covered by America and Frank Stallone. “The Sailor’s Song” came next, driven by an outstanding instrumental segment and captivating lyrics about life on the open ocean.

The album tended to alternate between slower tracks like “Take My Heart Away”, “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong” (co-written by Kenny Loggins and also found on his album, Keep The Fire), and more uptempo cuts like the electric title track and the slightly progressive-oriented “Chemistry”. Steve George contributes a rare lead vocal on “Two People.”

Like on the first album, “Future Street” maintains Colomby’s exquisite production values and soothing sound and demonstrates an incredible range of styles, instrumentation, and pacing.
Compared with the previous effort, this album has a more radio-friendly feel in tune with the times, oriented to FM listeners. It is still far and away a first-class effort, and it’s another must-have for true soft rock / light AOR fans of the late Seventies and early ’80s.
This is you chance to get a Japanese Edition of this album at a really affordable price. It uses the last, very good remastering.
Highly Recommended

Sony Music Japan ～ 【SICP-4911－ＣＤ】
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01 – I Do Believe In You
02 – The Sailor’s Song
03 – Take My Heart Away
04 – Future Street
05 – Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong
06 – Chemistry
07 – Two People
08 – Keep On Movin’

Richard Page – Lead & background vocals, synths
Steve George – Keyboards, vocals
Charles Johnson – Acoustic and electric guitar
Jerry Manfredi – Bass
Russell Battelene – Drums, background vocals
George Lawrence – Drums
Tim May Rhythm – Guitar On Track 6
Joey Trujillo – Acoustic & Rhythm Guitars On Tracks 2/3
Bobby Colomby, Claudio Slon, Don Alias – Percussion
Jay Winding – Keyboards, Fender Rhodes On Track 5
Jerry Hey Horns – Strings On Tracks 5/8
Dick Hazard – Strings On Track 3
Chuck Findley, Lew McCreary – Horns
Michael Brecker – Sax On Track 5
Kenny Loggins, George Hawkins, Philip Bailey – Backing Vocals

BUY IT !
www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICP-4911
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