“Why do you write another song when you’ve already written 500? Where do you find passion when you’ve done it all, and what is the point to record and release and new album, in a time when nothing is like it once was. I tell you why! Because it is who I am and it is what I do. I am a singer, I am a songwriter and I am a rock’n’roller. I have said this before and say it again. I am a torchbearer of my musical heroes. The seed they planted in me keeps growing and I keep going on and on”. – Mike Tramp, January 2019
The gentle guitar and strings that lead the listener into ‘No End to War’ and the sharper guitar that cuts in before the vocal will already have you smiling. Indeed the opening track to Mike Tramp’s new album ‘Stray From The Flock’ is just what the doctor ordered. Lyrically its compelling and musically it enfolds you like soft warms arms, comforting and assured.
‘Dead End Ride’ (the first single due out January 25th) is just as smooth, similarly and effortlessly lush and melodic, and has all the Tramp hallmarks that have seen him produce a slew of great albums since striking out in 1997 with Capricorn a dizzying 22 years ago now.
‘Homesick’ is the most melancholy song here and as fans will know Mike is very capable of tugging at those heart-stings like no one else, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel and with references Kiss and the start of it all, it’s again another personal and heartfelt lyric that leads you all the way to middle age and grey beards and coming to terms with life’s journey. And with “you wake up right before you hit the wall” providing another memorable chorus you can’t go wrong.
‘You Ain’t Free Anymore’ sees Tramp lay down a chunky riff and get all defiant with his home truths, and ‘No Closure’ starts off with an almost Foreigner-like opening and drifts into Tramp’s winning demi-ballad style which twists and wrings with emotion a he speaks to his father.
Deeper in ‘One Last Mission’ amps things up again, it’s a brooding rocker, and it’s fair to say that one of the great features of ‘Stray From the Flock’ that the balance between the rockers and the slower numbers that seems to be just right. ‘Live it Out’ like some of Tramp’s recent offerings has those wonderful shades of Tom Petty about it and it’s a style that fits more than comfortably with his vocal. It might even be one of the best here.
If you’re looking for something smokier and moodier then the brooding ‘Messiah’ might be the pick for you.It opens up with a wonderful instrumental passage before the vocals sweep in and Tramp ponders one of the biggest questions life throws at you.
‘Best Days of My Life’ that follows treads ground that Tramp has visited before – that inability to recapture and repeat the past – its that tale of growing and the world changing as you do. Here though its far more celebratory than mournful and I think just edges out the competition for my pick of the album. Its a great song and trademark Tramp sing-along material.
All too soon though the ride is at an end. Closing track ‘Die With a Smile on Your Face’ has a mournful background click that sounds like the ticking of time, and low, slow keys before the vocal kicks in. It’s a slow almost Country Waltz that sees Tramp’s vocal shadowed by an unaccredited female vocal. It ends with the tolling of bells. It’s an interesting way to close, more downbeat than you might expect, and not your typical Tramp fare but it makes a nice appendix to an album that sounds rather assured.
Indeed this album (solo album number 11) sees Mike step into that wonderful land where he seems to have found the percent balance between the echoes of the past and his more ‘stripped back’ recent outings. This is an album that feels comfortable and honest, effortless and free-flowing. It’s an album that isn’t under any pressure to be anything other than ‘Mike Tramp’ and isn’t afraid to take what he’s learnt on every part of that journey. Mike Tramp in 2019 is bolder and stronger than ever.
