Mecca - Mecca


Year of Release: 2002
Label: Frontiers
Catalog Number: FRCD110
Format: CD
Total Time: 48:02:00

Mecca is a new super group of the AOR genre and features the fantastic vocal talents of Joe Vana and Fergie Frederiksen (Toto, LeRoux, Trillion, Frederiksen/Philips). Furthermore, the band consist of guitarist Mike Aquino (World Stage), bassist David Hungate (Toto), drummer Shannon Forest, and keysman Larry Millas.

Mecca presents smooth and slick AOR in the vein of The Storm, Toto, Le Roux and Survivor. This means the music is very vocal and harmony dominated and both Vana and Frederikson steal the show with their impressive voices. It's simply wonderful listening to vocalists of this calibre. And as in most super groups of the genre, the vocalists are backed up by top notch musicians. The album is perfect night-time listening music and possesses that special mood and atmosphere of those classic AOR discs from the 80s. The songwriting is excellent and great songs follow in a row. The tracks balance nicely between up tempo tracks, mid-paced songs, semi-ballads and ballads. There are no weak songs in sight here, just wonderfully penned and executed songs. It is really hard to pick out certain favourites among such a strong tracklist. The production is well balanced and typical for the genre, but a little more depth and richness in the production would be preferable. But having said that, the production is just as good as anything else in the genre.

What can I say? You will probably not find any better pure, classic AOR CD coming out this year. Mecca has set the standard. This disc comes highly recommended!

[For the second? release, the group seems to have changed their name to Planet Mecca - PW ed.]

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]


Tracklisting:
Veloticized / Without You / Can't Stop Love / Silence Of The Heart / You Still Shock Me / Mecca / Wishing Well / Close That Gap / Blinded By Emotions / Falling Down

Musicians:
Joe Vana - vocals
Fergie Frederiksen - vocals
Mike Aquino - guitars
David Hungate - bass
Shannon Forest - drums
Larry Millas - keyboards

Discography:
Mecca (2002)
Planet Mecca - Return To Mecca (2004?)

Genre: Other

Origin US

Added: January 17th 2005
Reviewer: Bjørnar Bevolden
Score:
Artist website: www.planetmecca.com
Hits: 3906
Language: english

  

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