You have to say that 6 years is long wait for a follow up to the wonderful ‘The Way Life Goes,’ Tom Keifer’s debut solo album and an album which itself was first touted a couple of years after Cinderella initially split in 1995 then put n hold before tracking began ten years before release in 2003. In the scheme of things therefore these six years have been a breeze.
‘Rise’ Keifer’s second solo record drops on September 13th on Cleopatra records and I have to say that much as I loved that debut, that this second slice of the pie is so much more satisfying.
Preceded by first single ‘The Death of Me,’ a song about bouncing back when you get hit in the face by what life throws at you, something as we all know Tom has had his fair share of over the years, ‘Rise’ is an album full of passion and determination.
At eleven tracks long ‘Rise’ has variety too and runs the gamut of gritty blues and rock to tender ballads, stopping at all points in between and even visiting the odd blue highway or two. It’s also a record that six years in the making shows a huge mount of growth that you could argue even outweighs the 16 years it took to create the first solo record. Part of that seems to come down to spending so much time with his collaborators, including wife Savannah, and the rest of his band on the road.
“When this band came together, we all felt a bit like broken souls, each with our own unique story,” he explains. “If you ask anyone in the band, they would all say this band came along at just the right time. Every human who walks this planet faces challenges and extreme adversity they have to overcome. As a band, we feel fortunate to be able to face those things together. There is a piece of every band member in the ‘The Death of Me’ as well as throughout the entire ‘Rise’ album.”
We start with the slide-strewn ‘Touching the Divine’ that seeps in all atmospheric and mellow before that guitar hits and Tom’s voice rises to meet it. It’s a great song that hints at the past of course, but which offers a rootsier take on Bluesy Hard Rock.
After that those initial fireworks, the focus keeps shifting and changing: ‘Hype’ has the kind of feel that Aerosmith captured on tracks like ‘Nobody’s Fault’ and track five, cunningly entitled ‘Untitled’ adds those kind of loose, dark and hazy accents that characterise some of Rock’s great albums. Title track ‘Rise’ introduces piano and takes as it’s content a fight against what holds you down. It has everything and really does sound like an important moment here, and a song made to be played ‘live’. The band sounds wonderful.
Deeper still ‘All Amped Up’ is the other ‘Cinderalla meets The Stones’ Hard Rocker and a helluva song, while ‘Breaking Down’ is Bluesier and builds to a fine chorus that will have you singing along. ‘Taste For The Pain’ is another great moment that has all of those classic singer-songwriter elements to it, it’s part Dylan, part Springsteen, part Jagger, but all Keifer.
“We were trying to capture the feeling of what people have witnessed live with this band,” Keifer explains. “There’s an off-the-rails, real live feel to ‘Rise’— and that’s what we were going for. It shows a real kind of angst and reckless abandon that we tried not to polish too much. And when we pull it back on the ballads, it’s more about the emotion, the soul, and making people feel something in a different way.”
After a few play of this album you are hit both by the variety on offer here and also the sheer weight of these songs. There are moments here that would be highlights in anyone’s career and as we close you get two songs that really sum this album up, the third real rocker here is ‘Life Was Here’ and it cranks up the volume wonderfully. The last word though is ‘You Believe In Me’ Tom’s song for his wife, it’s a wonderful tender moment and another song here that has echoes from the ages that make you feel you’ve lived with this song for years.
This is one to savor. Hit the repeat!
