Music and the City
MICHAEL BORMANN - "S/T" (Z RECORDS 2002)
I first heard Michael when his band, RAIN, kindly sent me their 14 song demo CD for review at Music and the City. The band have recently released their first album, "House of Dreams" on Kivel Records. Almost simultaneously, came this self titled debut solo album. To make matters even more complicated, Michael's main band, JADED HEART, have also just released their latest album, "The Journey Will Never End".
So with all this music around him, I was very interested in hearing how Michael's solo record would sound...
What we have here is a collection of soulful, pop/rock songs sung to perfection by Mr. Bormann. You will see in the liner notes that Michael does all the vocals and plays all the instruments (with additional keyboards by Chris Ivo). He also produced and mixed the record, making this a solo album in the true sense of the word!
The first five songs on the record are amazing and if the world were fair, they would all be hits! The opening track, "Can't Stop Missing You" is a picture perfect pop ballad. Get the video on VH-1 and I swear this one would be huge! I love the lyrics in the bridge, "Ain't is easy in isolation. Ain't it easy in sobriety." "The Best is Yet to Come" is unfortunately not the RAIN song (which was sadly left off of the official album release). The good news is, it is a killer blues number. Reminds me a little of the Billy Joel song, "Shameless". Next is "How Many Times". I think we've got the song of the year here! This works as the male companion to the hit Jewel song, "Standing Still". The acoustic groove continues on "If I Was a King". With it's very thoughtful lyrics, it is such a positive influence. In the song, the line "Are they stupid or are they just blind" is related to racism and religion, but it could just as easily relate to the music world. The song "Sorry is All I Can Say" is filled with the kind of sentiment that made Bryan Adams a huge success. However, like all the songs on this album, Michael delivers with such honesty, that he makes the sentiment his own.
The second half of the album strays from the more commercial sound of the first half. Songs like "The One I Hate" and "So What About" carry a darker vibe and are not as inviting as the first five tracks, but they are still all very good.
Without a doubt in my mind, if Z Records could get this album enough promotion and airplay, Michael Bormann could make his mark and soon become an outstanding, successful solo artist.
