As requested, here’s another strong album from highly gifted songwriter / musician JEFF PARIS, his fourth, 1997’s “Smack”, in its limited edition 2-CD including as extra disc the EP “Life Of My Broken Heart”.
Jeff Paris songs have been versioned by dozens of artists / bands, and the material into “Smack” isn’t the exception, however here Jeff put his own vision – almost the entire record is performed by himself, only a couple of guest appear on “Smack”.
The good thing with Jeff Paris is that he always has been a clever, intelligent creator, put the ego aside and co-writes with other songwriters to enrich his musical palette. On this album Jeff share co-writing with other talented cats such as Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe), Gary Moon & Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Rick Whitfield (Jack Wagner), John Goodwin (Michael McDonald), Adam Wacht (Trouble Tribe, Bad Co.), Michael Caruso (Vixen, Lita Ford), etc.
Musically, for this album Jeff turned more organic, bluesy classic rock / hard rock, with less keyboards than his ’80s records – much in the style that many colleagues did – read Eric Martin, Stan Bush, John Waite solo albums from the Nineties.
There’s some awesome songs here plenty of melody and great arrangements. The single was “Life of My Broken Heart”, an AOR midtempo tune so Paris-classic. “Smack [Limited Edition 2-CD]” includes as extra that song Maxi-Single / EP also standalone released, including a remix/edit version of the title track and 2 collectible (and good) non-album tracks.
Well worth a purchase if you can get it anywhere these days for a reasonable price. Anyway, here’s for your listening pleasure.
Highly Recommended
CD 1: Smack USG 37652-2
01 – Sacred
02 – Twistin’ in the Wind
03 – Last Chance, Last Ride
04 – Life of My Broken Heart
05 – Last Act
06 – The Solitary Life
07 – Everebody Dies
08 – I’m Losing My Mind
09 – She Said, She Said
10 – Prime of Love
11 – Requiem For Steve Ray
CD 2: Disk 2 – Life of My Broken Heart (Single) USG 37653-8
01 – Life of My Broken Heart (Radio Edit)
02 – The Ways of Love
03 – Twistin’ in the Wind
04 – Anyone But Me
Jeff Paris – Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Drums
Marti Frederickson – Bass, Guitar (Track 2), Programming (Track 5)
Mark McCoy – Backing Vocals (Track 5)
JEFF PARIS – Smack [Limited Edition 2-CD], MP3+FLAC
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