TONY PATTERSON & DOUG MELBOURNE: DARK BEFORE DAWN

1. "Maybe" (3:48) good opener. The music is a little more insistent and then pop-jazzy than I was expecting. Nice vocal sound. (I like it when Tony sings in his upper registers: it's just very soothing/comforting.) I don't really like the chorus, thought. (8.75/10)

2. "My Happy Place" (4:53) nice synth orchestral sound/arrangement. This is not the only song on the album that conjures up the feeling of the presence of jazz stylist MICHAEL FRANKS. (8.667/10)

3. "Flags" (3:40) sounds like the same chord progression as the previous song, only using Spanish guitar instead of keyboard synths. Nice background vocals and synth strings arrangements.(8.75/10)

4. "Leaving" (3:32) a very nice song that builds beautifully. (8.875/10)

5. "Old School Tie" (4:10) a fun little romp back into the pop sooth jazz of the late 1970s/early 1980s in the vein of NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN and others of his ilk. (8.75/10)

6. "Burn the Skies" (5:06) nothing very special here. Even the presence of the ChapmanStick offers nothing very exciting.(8.5/10)

7. "Stopping Time" (4:05) an electric piano-accompanied song that sounds very much like it came out of a PETER GABRIEL song. Nice but rather ordinary. (8.25/10)

8. "Reach Out" (6:55) despite the "Eminence Front" rhythmic keyboard pattern, this is another song that never really climbs out of its rut of second gearishness: three and a half minutes of intro before it clicks into third as a PETER GABRIEL clone! The chorus is pleasant, but the PG similarities are rather annoying--as much for their lack of originality as for their sappy-syrupy quality. (12.5/15)

9. "Dark Before Dawn" (5:00) another song that is way too close to PETER GABRIEL's musical past. (8.33/10)

10. "Come Home (for Angela)" (2:20) sounds like Peter Jones---in voice, music, and lyrics. (4.25/5)

Total Time 43:29

Definitely an album of synth pop / dream pop / jazz pop. Too bad Tony's voice is sounding so much older than he did on his 2016 masterpiece, Equations of Meaning. The vulnerability of his now-frail-sounding voice sometimes works as an advantage but the soundscapes miss the lushness his vocals and multi-track, reverbed voice had on Equations.

C+/3.5 stars; an enjoyable album that I would only recommend to lovers of melodic Peter Gabriel-like prog pop.

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