I spoke to Mike last week, something I’ve done regularly over the years and usually in conjunction with an album or a tour but 2020 sees like the year when no one will be hitting the road anytime soon. Still at least we can listen to some damn good music.
I’m one of those strange people who likes Mike Tramp’s solo material more than his stuff with White Lion or Freak of Nature (or even Mabel) I remember years ago seeing him play in Melbourne where we both lived at the time and the impact hearing ‘More To Life Than This’ for the first time had one me. It’s a quite fitting title these days I guess.
You can quibble over the names they were released under but really this is Mike’s 11th or 12th studio record solo depending on how you look at it, and it’s a little different. I’ll let the man himself explain…
“The songs on ‘Second Time Around’ have been with me for a long, long time. I remember writing the first song “When She Cries”, October 2, 2005 the day after my daughter Isabel had been born. It was like a whole new door opened and all these songs came out over the next few months along with a whole other bunch of songs, which have all ended up on different albums. You can say it was the most creative time in my 44 years in the rock’n’roll uniform.”
Tramp adds: “The songs on “Second Time Around” are some of my favorite compositions, and for many years I have gone around with a feeling that they were never given a real chance. I have missed them in my live shows and I have missed singing them. So when I made the decision to rebuild and resurrect this bunch of songs, it was truly a chance to go for a ‘Second Time Around’.”
There is a simpler was to say that we have heard all of these songs before. If you own Tramp’s ‘Mike Tramp & The Rock ‘N’ Roll Circuz’ album from 2009 that was released only in Denmark on Kick, then all the tracks here are on there along with three other songs that don’t make this record – ‘Enter The Circuz’, ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Wiseman’. And whilst the remaining ten tracks make up this record the tracklisting has changed, though a pretty much identical version of ‘All Of My Life’ still opens.
I had approached this album thinking that it was Tramp revisiting some of his lost songs as 2004’s ‘Second Time Around’ had done, but after reading the press release I thought it was maybe him choosing songs from the past he wished he’d done differently and re-releasing them. I didn’t expect it to be an incomplete re-release of the first Rock ‘N’ Roll Circuz album (a second album ‘Stand Your Ground’ followed in 2011).
As it happened I loved that album which was originally intended to be the next new White Lion album but a new solo band was formed instead. But because it’s not explicitly stated what’s happened here all I ca say is that the songs are incredibly faithful to the originals and just sound like they’ve been remixed.
It’s a great record though and I do remember at the time buying it from Mike’s website and wondering why the hell this didn’t get an international release. ‘All My Life’ is right up there with Tramps best songs and there’s a little more electricity and pop than on his most recent releases with a real ‘band’ feel about this release.
First time around the singles were the wonderful ‘All of My Life’ and the uplifting ‘Come On’ and they’re certainly amongst the best here though this time around the wonderfully sweet mid-tempo melodies of ‘The Road’ have also seen a single release; as has the Thin Lizzy inspired ‘Between Good and Bad’ which simply sizzles!
Aside from the singles the slower ‘Lay Down Your Guns’ works well and sports some great keys; ‘Highway’ is a great ‘blue skies’ rock song full of positivity and drive; ‘No Tomorrow’ a cool rocker that’s maybe the hardest hit here; and ‘When She Cries’ might just make you weep, but there’s nothing that will disappoint on this one.
In all honesty I’d have this album right up there with Tramps best.
9/10
Tracklisting: 01. All Of My Life | 02. The Road | 03. Anymore | 04. Come On | 05. Between Good And Bad | 06. Lay Down Your Guns | 07. Highway | 08. No Tomorrow | 09. Back To You |10. When She Cries
Order the new album here: www.targetshop.dk/miketramp or your local record pusher.
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