DAKOTA – Deep 6 [Reissue 2016]

Most part of American AORsters DAKOTA discography was out of print from some time now, fortunately some of their albums are getting a deserved reissue this year 2016. “Deep 6” is one of the best albums in Dakota’s history and easily among the best AOR albums appeared in the past decade.

After the very good, more melodic rock oriented album Little Victories, Dakota chose to get back to the ’80s style, which means that “Deep 6” could easily be compared to their all-time masterpiece ’84 LP ‘Runaway’.
Hludzik and keyboardist Rick Manwiller took almost two years to prepare the material, and the result is nothing else but stunning.

As far as I’m concerned, you could call this “Deep 6” the real follow-up of that ’80s AOR milestone for the band, as the new songs are at least as impressive, as well as the performance and the production managed by Hludzik / Manwiller themselves.
Count to that the special guest appearances of co-founder Bill Kelly and Chicago’s Bill Champlin on backing vocals and in this day and age all AOR lovers had a brand-new album in the old ’80s style they absolutely can’t afford to miss.

Among the many highlights there’s the rocking opener ‘Brothers In Arms’, the really Toto-ish ‘Back To Me’, the wonderful uptempo AOR of ‘Eye Of The Storm’ and title track ‘Deep 6’ which is an incredible a-capella mix of all 12 songs on this album on which the guys show how good they still can sing in perfect harmony.

Dakota’s “Deep 6” was the album of the year (2003) for me, and still is one of the AOR / Melodic Rock highlights for the genre in this new Millennium. But the songwriting quality and overall sound makes this album also comparable to any ’80s classy record in this vein.
A Must Have

01 – Brothers In Arms
02 – Holdin’ Your Own
03 – Back To Me
04 – Not So Much Love
05 – What Were You Thinkin’
06 – That Awful Day
07 – Eye Of The Storm
08 – Not Just The Night
09 – Right This Minute
10 – Shut Up And Drive
11 – The Ride
12 – Luck, Time & Mind
13 – Deep 6

Jerry Hludzik – vocals, bass
Rick Manwiller – keyboards, vocals
Eli Hludzik – drums
Jon Lorance – guitars
Bill Kelly – backing vocals
Bill Champlin – backing vocals

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