Agent - Agent

Tracks :-

Heartbeat
I Can't Hold Back
This Could Be The Night
She Trusted Me
On The Radio
Can't Stop
Change Of Heart
Surrender
Blame It On Love
Headlines
Just Between The Two Of Us (Bonus Track)

Total playing time : 42.03 m:s

Produced by : Agent
Label : Escape Music Ltd.
Year : 1996

The original release of this album was recorded back in 1986 with Rick Livingstone (of Storming Heaven) on vocals. Agent are signed to Escape Music now and due to release some new material shortly. From what I remember from a couple of recent interviews it's was the guys at Escape who suggested re-recording the album, which is regarded by some as a bit of an AOR classic.

If you look through the reviews that I've done so far for Mood Swings, you will note the high proportion of Now And Then releases. Of course, Now And Then aren't the only UK label specialising in AOR/Melodic Rock, Escape Music are now on the scene. To maintain a sense of fair play, I've been itching to review some more Escape releases (Heartland III is the only one previously reviewed). This review is the first step in that process.

Two paragraphs and I haven't mentioned the music yet ! Survivor are one of my favourite bands and are an obvious comparison. Throw in some early Michael Bolton and some Drive She Said, and possibly some Richard Marx, into the melting pot and you get the picture.

First, let's deal with the uptempo numbers, which tend to have a bouncy quality. Uptempo highlights are opener Heartbeat, This Could Be The Night and best of all Surrender. The other upbeat numbers On The Radio, Can't Stop and Headlines aren't quite so convincing. The rest of the songs fall into the ballad and semi-ballad categories. To these ears, this is the area where Agent excel. Virtually all of these deserve a mention. I'm going to pick out She Trusted Me and Blame It On Love as the best of the bunch.

The last track is a ballad called Just Between The Two Of Us. This bonus track didn't appear on the original release of the album. Agent don't seem to have taken much notice of the changing musical trends between recordings, as this one fits in perfectly with the rest of the album.

I don't have the original release of this so I can't make comparisons. From what I've read elsewhere the main benefit of this version is the improvement in production that the intervening years have allowed. It appears that it's fairly difficult to tell the two singers apart.

Agent are due to release some new material soon. This has served as good appetiser. I hate artists re-recording new versions of old songs for new albums, but when the band actually re-record the whole album I don't see any valid reason for complaint. In fact, if it wasn't for Escape's re-release of this album, I would never have heard this album and that would have been a shame.

Rating : 8