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MelodicRock.com Reviews


PUSH
4 THE LOVE OF THE GAME
Z Records
Produced by: Push
Released: OUT NOW / Website
Relatives: White Lion
GENRE: AOR
OVERALL: 85%

  1. For The Love Of The Game
  2. Heart Is An Empty Space
  3. Only Dreaming
  4. In My Blood
  5. Time To Let You Know
  6. Not This Time
  7. Lucky Man
  8. The Best Thing
  9. More Than Meets The Eye
  10. Just A Man
  11. Black Candles

This is album number 4 for Danish rockers Push. Fronted by Martin Peters (Mike Tramp's long lost cousin), the band are back with more delightfully melodic White Lion influenced European style rock songs.
To my ears it sounds like there are two versions of the band on this record. The harder than ever rocking half that appears on the opening number and the closing three songs of the album, then the lighter, more commercial AOR band that fills out the 9 songs in between!
With the opening track and the those few closing tracks, the band are noticeably trying to beef up their sound and use a more European heavy rock approach, over the more radio friendly AOR of their regular sound. I think I even detected a few Yngwie-ish guitar riffs!
The opening title track is enjoyable musically, but unfortunately is suffers from the worst production value for the entire album. Don't let this put you off, as generally, the album's standard is high throughout.
Track 2 Heart Is An Empty Space is almost the beginning of another album! The style is back to super slick AOR and the production much smoother. It should please all long time fans of the band and those anthem AOR lovers out there. In fact, it rates os one of this year's best anthems and will remind fans of the huge Waiting In Line off On The Run.
And this is exactly the style of the album for the next 8 tracks - high spirited, commercial and radio friendly, 80's European AOR.
Tracks like In My Blood and the lighter-in-the-air anthem ballad Time To Let You Know are as fine examples of soft AOR that you will find.
It should be noted that the last 2 tracks were featured as Japanese bonus tracks from the On The Run CD. In my humble opinion, it's cool to see them available, but they don't enhance this album at all.
BOTTOM LINE: As does the style on this album vary, so does the production. At times it's as smooth as one would expect based on past experiences, but at other times - especially on those heavier tracks, it's rawer and maybe not as complete as it could have been.
In fact, of the entire selection of AOR tracks, there really aren't any fillers. It's helps to have a fondness for Martie's voice, as it has it's own style.
But it's when things turn heavy that we begin to see a drop in song quality and production. Aside from these points the album is another good melodic rock release, if not quite as strong as the band's last album On The Run.
PRODUCTION: 79% SONGS: 88% VIBE: 85%ATTITUDE: 85%
ESSENTIAL FOR: All fans of Push and some fans of White Lion, fans of European soft AOR.
DISCOGRAPHY:Maximum Entertainment . Shaken, Not Stirred . On The Run . 4 The Love Of The Game



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