Jeff Scott Soto
Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)

Jeff Scott Soto has a big list of albums released during his long and perhaps also illustrious career. This time he is wide awake in his dreamland, a new album that comes with the added bonus of a disk from a live show – added value but as it is an additional disk you don’t even need to play it if you don’t want to. The great Alessandro Del Vecchio has helped with the songs and recordings, of this album that has a pretty nice cover for a solo artist.

Melodic rock or AOR is the genre, that shouldn’t be a surprise. The production is pretty excellent and the vocals too, the tracks of the album are quite varied and has pretty good depth. It is an album that has a lot, but what I am missing is the originality, surprises, novelty, the fresh ideas are pretty absent from this album. Soto goes for the safe bets and this album sounds pretty much like everything he has done before, one could argue that Del Vecchio and Soto, two such skilled musicians, should be able to make something more exciting than this.

If you prefer safe bets and shy away from daring new ideas and novelty in music it is a good album for you, because they go for the tried and tested. When the live part is more interesting due to a more fascinating song selection you are a little bit off with your new creation. I want more exciting songs, they are catchy and good, but they are not memorable and memorable songs are needed if you want to make an outstanding album. Both Del Vecchio and Soto make great stuff in their sleep, and this album was probably made in the sleep – I think you should expect better from such great musicians and songwriters.

In a way you cannot really go wrong with this one, it is a pretty strong album with strong songs. The problem is that there are plenty of such albums and there are better recent choices within the genre, but with catchy songs and Soto’s vocals I doubt you will be very disappointed. Perhaps it would be wiser to await the next W.E.T.-album if you want something great with Soto’s great vocals, I haven’t heard it but W.E.T. have always been better than Soto’s other stuff. This wide awaken dreaming is a solid and good, but a little bit unspectacular effort.

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