The Usual Suspects

After releasing a couple of CDs full of cover tunes (Under Cover I and II) as well as a very blues influenced album JLT, released in 2003, legendary hard rock vocalist Joe Lynn Turner decided to get back to his hard rock roots. Joe's also been busy with the Hughes/Turner Project, a joint venture with another legendary vocalist, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Iommi). With The Usual Suspects, we see Joe returning to the melodic hard rocking sound of the Straight Between The Eyes and Bent Out Of Shape era of Rainbow; a band that certainly helped shape most of the melodic hard rock to come out of the 80's. Helping out on the album are guitarists Al Pitrelli (Savatage, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Alice Cooper, Megadeth) and Karl Cochran (Ace Frehley) as well as drummer John O'Reilly (Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult), keyboardists Paul Morris (Rainbow, Doro), Andy Burton (Ian Hunter), bassist David Z (Trans Siberian Orchestra) with Nancy Benden on background vocals. The album title doesn't come from the legendary Kevin Spacey movie of the same name but from the term that Joe uses to describe his long-time musical collaborators.

With the opening track, The Power Of Love, Joe gets right down to business with a hard rocking track that has lots of similarities to 80's Rainbow and Whitesnake. With a solid mix of guitars and organ, Joe's voice sounds as great as ever and this track, like most of the album, has a strong chorus and overall solid vocal performances. The Rainbow vibe comes through again with Devil's Door and even more so with Jack Knife. With a killer fast style, Jack Knife sounds like something left over from Straight Between The Eyes with a Death Alley Driver like vibe. A killer track, it gets my vote as the best on the album. Other Rainbow influenced tracks include the driving mid tempo track Into The Fire with the last track, Unfinished Business being a real barn-burner complete with solid lead guitar and piano trade off leads and a great classic rock and roll sound.

Big booming guitar riffs are featured on such tracks as Rest Of My Life which has a great dramatic edge and aside from a somewhat sappy chorus, it's a track that could've been a huge hit in the 80's around the Bent Out Of Shape era. The booming riff style continues with Blood Money; featuring the Savatage guitar sound of Al Pitrelli. Al's signature sound and Joe's soulful voice make great music together. Joe even treads into classic Deep Purple territory with Ball and Chain. With bluesy and heavy riffs, his use of a screaming vocal style even sounds like the style of Deep Purple's Ian Gillan.

Joe has such a great voice for ballads and on this album, we see several tracks that fall into that category. Really Loved is laid back AOR style track that has a catchy groove with Live And Love Again seeing Joe delivering a great vocal for a solid power ballad styled track. All Alone, with its lighter slow rock feel contains some nice guitar riffs, expressive leads and a great chorus.

Even though more of a traditional melodic hard rock album, the guitars are always very prominent in the mix for the entire album. I haven't heard Joe sound this good in many years. His vocal style combined with a collection of great songs results in the best album he's done since Yngwie Malmsteen's Odyssey album. The production as far as the drums and bass sound a bit thin but for those looking for a quick revisit to the 80's when melodic hard rock pretty much ruled the airwaves, this album is just what you're looking for. Fans of Joe Lynn Turner and especially of the era of Rainbow when he fronted the band, will love this album. With The Usual Suspects, you get a solid mix of hard driving rockers, melodic mid tempo tracks with a few power ballads thrown in to round out an overall very balanced album.