Joe Lynn Turner - Holy Man

1. No Salvation
2. Holy Man
3. Anything
4. Honest Crime
5. Wolves At The Door
6. Angel
7. Something New
8. Freedom's Wings
9. Love Is Blind
10. Midnight In Tokyo
11. Babylon
12. Closer
13. Too Blue To Sing The Blues

Album Cover:

Total Playing Time:  57:43 m:s

Review date: 22/09/2000

Email: 

The album kicks of with all guns blazing on "No Salvation" which reminds me of the JLT era Deep Purple tune "Fire In The Basement". The title track is more "Deep Rainbow" with the guitar player joining in and doing a good Ritchie Blackmore impersonation. The pace slackens for "Anything" and the blues element gets turned up a notch on this mid-tempo ramble. "Honest Crime" and "Wolves At The Door" are both guitar based blues rock, with "Wolves At The Door" having a predicable blues theme of being in debt. "Angel" is a slow to mid-tempo tune with an injection of melody making it more AOR-like. For the next three tunes, "Something New", "Freedom's Wings" and "Love Is Blind", it is back to the blues-based rock, with "Freedom's Wings", whilst not being stunning, an slight improvement over the past few tracks. With a title like "Midnight In Tokyo" it just has to be Deep Purple/Rainbow and it is, giving one of the more memorable tracks on the album. The Rainbow theme continues on "Babylon" which actually reminds me more of RJD era Rainbow. "Closer" is the nearest the album gets to an AOR tune, but the chorus isn't definite enough to give the song that extra lift it needs. "Too Blue To Sing The Blues" has bit of a swing about it and again echoes Purple's previous output.

Joe Lynn Turner has a great voice and I'm a fan of his singing, but on this album, there just aren't enough good songs for JLT to add his touch of magic to. The tunes with the Purple and Rainbow influences are the ones that work best for me. Next time, I'd like to see Joe take his time writing and recording the songs and then perhaps we'll get the songs to match the quality of Joe's voice.