Josette - Josette
Wicked Child All I Want Is You Beating Heart Closer Heading Home When Love Begins Livin' 2 Lives Our Love Believe In Me Don't Be Lonely As Time Goes On Label: Escape Music Ltd Year: 1998 Producer: Jerry Hludzik Total Playing Time: 42:25
The big interest for me in this album is the hefty presence of Dakota members - Jerry Hludzik on bass & production, Rick Manwiller helps out on the engineering side, Eli Hludzik on drums and Jon Lorance on guitars and song writing duties.
It is no surprise then that the musicianship meets with my approval. If you read the Dakota interview, you'll see that Jerry reckons that he and Rick haven't let Jon & Eli loose on a Dakota record yet. Here, Jon & Eli get a chance to show us just what they are capable of. I might even go as far as to say that Jon Lorance is competing with Miss Josette herself for the limelight.
The obvious comparisons are Pat Benetar and to a certain extent, Heart. However, quite a few of the songs have more of a raunchy edge to them and Sayara and a less a aggressive Chrissy Steele are names that I'd also throw into the ring.
The first couple of songs are Sayara style rockers that don't quite grab your attention quite as much as an opening duo should.
Beating Heart, Closer, Living 2 Lives and As Time Goes By all rockers that adopt a more melodic approach, similar to Benetar/Heart, and work much better.
Heading Home, When Love Begins, Our Love and Don't Be Lonely all slow the pace down, with When Love Begins coming out as the winner.
That just leaves Believe In Me, which is my favourite song on the album. This uptempo number simply outshines the rest of the material. Again, it falls into the Benetar/Heart category.
After the excellence of the recent Dakota album, I had high expectations of this album. Maybe that is why I'm a little disappointed by this. A mainly fair to good album, and I've got no complaints about Josette's vocals, but it is let down by some bland ballads.
Rating: 6/7
