If you liked 'Crossroads Moments', I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't check this out.

In case you were daft enough to miss it, Jimi Jamison issued a solo album called ‘Crossroads Moment’ not so long back... and pretty damn good it was too. Jimi offered a top drawer vocal performance (as usual) to a batch of songs penned by his former Survivor bandmate, the prolific and excellent Jim Peterik. Not content with knocking out fifteen excellent melodic rockers for that album, there was also some stuff left over that didn’t make the record. As we all know, Peterik is not known for writing duff songs, so Andrew McNeice of www.melodicrock.com fame decided he would put together a label called Melodic Rock Records, and he would issue these tracks as his first release.

So, ‘Extra Moments’ is the result. The good news is, far from being an album made up of discarded fillers and potential B-sides (if we were still in an era where singles mattered) such is the quality of Peterik’s writing, this is like a mini album which acts as a complement to the main record. ‘Dream Higher’ opens things up with a riff that would not be out of place on ‘Too Hot To Sleep’. Just because these didn’t make the final cut, don’t think there’s any drop in quality here in terms of songwriting, vocals or playing. ‘Chiseled In Stone’ also boasts a Survivor feel with it’s driving riff and piano parts. For long time Survivor fans, ‘Cry Of The Wild Heart’ is included, which Jimi sang as part of his audition for Survivor. While very good, I’ve been familiar with this song for some time as Peterik’s band The Ides Of March featured it on their ‘Version II.0’ compilation. I personally think the Ides version with Peterik on vocals is the definitive... there’s nothing wrong with the arrangement or Jimi’s vocal here, it just feels a bit sluggish compared to the speedier Ides cut and misses the brass. The middle eight is different to the Ides version though.

‘Heart Of A Woman’ is a textbook Peterik ballad that could have been on his solo CD, ‘Crossroads Moment’ or any Pride Of Lions album. ‘Life #9’ and ‘I Wanna Touch You There’ go back to the feelgood rockers with memorable melodies and great choruses that Jim writes so well, and ‘Lifeforce’ also has Peterik hallmarks all over it - starting slow and building pace toward the chorus. Basically it became evident to me that they could have issued ‘Crossroads Moment’ as a double album with about twenty songs on, and not sacrificed quality for quantity!

To flesh out the release as a full album, the CD includes demo versions, including an alternate version of ‘Chiseled In Stone’ with Jim Peterik handling the vocals. I think Jim is underrated as a singer and he does a great job with it. Jim also has a bash at ‘She’s Nothing To Me’ (with help from Thom Griffin) along with him singing on the demos of ‘Lifeforce’ and ‘Life #9’. There are admittedly a few moments here, particularly on the latter, which reveal Peterik’s limitations vocally compared to Jamison, but hey, that’s why they are demos and not the finished versions. It’s interesting to compare to the finished results, but ultimately it’s the opening half of the album that will interest people the most. If you liked ‘Crossroads Moments’, I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t check this out. Available from www.melodicrockrecords.com as well as places like Destiny Records (www.destinyrocks.com)

James Gaden