Touch the Sky

I don't know how good a practice it is to review CDs the day after the purchase... Well, here we go anyway. Yesterday I happened to have some extra time on my hands and came across this wandering in the record store. Of course I had to buy it. And of course they had already done the thing oh so many acts seem to have done right before I get their CDs, split. This time there are four (or was it evern five) tracks written by them themselves, one even without any external help - and all of them are thankfully light years better than the horrible With You from Planet Pop...

#1 Call on Me 9½

Quite similar to the first two singles but better. Funny how their focus changed from minors to majors for this second (and apparently the last) album.

#2 Star 7½

Really strange second track with surprisingly meaningful lyrics. Nothing musical to grasp, though, except maybe some atmosphere.

#3 I'm in Heaven When You Kiss Me 8½

The silly first single, not a very good choice, if you ask me. The video was funnily clichéd and had pleasant colours. Quite clearly this is an attempt to reproduce the success of their first two hits. Seemingly they failed, the album only making it to #97 in the charts (compared to the #11 of the first one). But then again, why on Earth did they spend almost two years between this first single and the album?

#4 New York City 9½

Very mobile song with theatral influences, the last (3rd) single. Different from the first two, probably in a good way. I must see the video for this, it must be great. Someone tell me what's the reference to "New York City" and "London Town"? This is by far not the first time I've heard it...

#5 Set Me Free 9

The second single was an improvement to the first one, although the lyrics are somehow in conflict with the music. I'm having problems whether this should be 9 or 9½.

#6 No Place Like Home 8½

I think I'm quickly forming a definite opinion on these copy protected CDs... Jumps and other disturbances are not quite my favourite features. I think I've got to use the rhyme lonely-only somewhere. It even follows the holy Tipi-tii principle. Somehow this is a very sympathetic song.

#7 Secret World 7½

These three tracks (6, 7, 9) are the most similar to the basic material of the first album.

#8 Touch the Sky 9

What is it with ATC and slow songs? On the first album my top favourite is slow and another used to be my second. It's an unusual quality to have both slow and fast songs of good quality on the same album. Not even Steps managed to do it, except for a few well-known exceptions, neither Da Buzz. And this is even the title track. Uh, there are some great chords, totally eurovisiony.

#9 Moment in Time 8

Evokes no big thoughts, though neither scares any away :]

#10 I'm Gonna Make You Mine 6½

The token boring ballad.

#11 Maybe 10

Ah, what a gem. The melody in the verse is so very good, the bridge isn't much worse and even the chorus doesn't manage to spoil the wholeness, though I'd change some of the chords in it for more effect. If only the chorus began with 1-5-6-3...

#12 Baby, Bye Bye 9

Work of completely their own, begins with some funny instruments. Quite good, despite the hazy chords towards the end of the chorus. Probably designed as a farewell track. The girls singing "bye bye" in a childish voice sounds very amusing indeed.