Unruly Child gained great reviews with their debut album back in the early 90’s and it featured vocalist Mark Free (now Marci). The follow-up had Kelly Keeling taking over the vocals and now the band are onto their third vocalist, Philip Bardowell. Guitarist Bruce Gowdy and keyboard player Guy Allinson are still there, with both also covering the drums and bass parts.

Listen to opener ‘Tear Me Down’ and you would swear it was Foreigner’s Lou Gramm singing! Philip Bardowell sounds a dead ringer for Lou Gramm on the rockers. Next up is the bombast of ‘Falling’ with plenty of guitars and again sounding like a rocking Foreigner. ‘All Around Me’ has a retro feel – very Kansas like in the backing music and a great hook. ‘Bring Me Home’ brings things down in tempo and highlights the strength of Philip Bardowell’s vocals. ‘Sleeping Town’ has a great chorus with some neat interplay between electric and acoustic guitars, with a subtle blues rock vibe running throughout the song. The bizarre short track ‘You See Three’ is pretty throw away but the following track ‘Kings of Tragedy’ rocks like good ‘un! Guitars to the max on this with a great organ outro. ‘Vertigo’ has touches of Led Zeppelin in the guitars but it has its own life, not some mere copy. ‘Something’ closes the album nicely being a mellow ballad complete with strings and Philip Bardowell’s vocals taking centre stage, coupled with some superb harmony vocals on the chorus.

Well worth your money - a must for Unruly Child and Foreigner fans (it is Foreigner on ‘Unruly Child’!) and lovers of quality melodic hard rock. Very well produced with some sterling guitar work.

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Review by Jason Ritchie

***** Out of this world | **** Pretty damn fine |
*** OK, approach with caution unless you are a fan |
** Instant bargain bin fodder | * Ugly. Just ugly