Tao
Prophecy

It is the debut album of British band Tao, a female fronted band that is compared with the Like of Roxette, Heart, etc. in the press material. It is heavily influenced by the band Ten considering that Gary Hughes writes all the songs for the debut album Prophecy, and he is also the producer of the album. They also have the keyboardist of Ten as a guest, Hughes is also heard doing some background vocals on the album. So, the question is if it is a good album, and the answer to that question is yes.

Pop-rock with female vocals, you can of course use the said bands as reference, a bit typical female fronted pop-rock, but also with major touches of the songwriting of Ten, it is quite obvious that the songs are written by Hughes, they bear his signature sound. I would say that the sound is fairly good, not great as I think that it would have benefitted by being more polished, this is a slightly more aggressive production than most poppier music, and I am not sure it is the best way to do it for the songs we get. The variation and playing time are other points worth picking out as a bit troublesome considering that the album feels a bit too long.

Prophecy is a good album overall; the songs are good and catchy. Still, it isn’t an amazing album or anything, I would say that it almost appears like popped up songs from the bin where Hughes writes songs for Ten, it is like a Ten-light with weaker songs and female vocals perhaps wanting to be something like those earlier female fronted rockers. It is probably wise to check it out before dismissing but there are many albums out there that are more exciting, but Hughes’ style of song writing is really good so there are some good stuff on this album.

No use complaining too much about it, but Prophecy sounds great the first time or possible the first two times you hear it, then it gets a bit repetitive. I recommend checking out before buying, and I conclude that you need to do more than redressing a few songs rejected by Ten if you want to create a strong album.

HHHHHHH