Imagine This

Item: Imagine This
Author: Beth Blinn

(1993)

Reviewed by Beth Blinn

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Label Essential Record GroupThe LighthouseMarch 1994

alternative metal arena rock funk rock pop rock

A five-member band, hailing from Texas, the pre-release buzz about this group was that their sound was reminiscent of King's X and Extreme. Since these are two bands that I enjoy a lot, I was looking forward to hearing this album.

I wasn't disappointed. And, while there are some resemblances to the aforementioned bands, Imagine This has managed to forge a pretty distinctive sound of their own. Their resemblance to Extreme can be heard on the strong funk-rock feel of many of the fast tunes, as well as the fluid guitar work and the diversity of styles within the album. Their strong harmonies are what hark back to fellow Texans King's X. Made up of Daryl Youngblood, (lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar), Rick Weinland (drums, percussion, rap vocals), Ahmad Montgomery (bass, rap vocals) Trey Hebert (lead vocals, backing vocals, rhythm guitars) and Tambri Hunt (keyboards, and backing vocals) Imagine This offers a strong debut.

The album starts with "Windows of Heaven", which is really a soundtrack of somebody driving to and entering a church, where a choir is singing "Holy, Holy, Holy." Then the sound of a needle dragging across a record comes out, and the album punches right into "Revolution," a hard-driving rocker that really grooves. From there, the album slides into "I Know" and "Word to the World," the first a ballad and the second a mid-tempo tune. While a vast departure from the first cut, the quality of both are a testament to the diversity of this group.

All together there are 15 tracks, a couple of which are samples, similar to the first one. While just about every cut is good, the strongest ones are "I Can't," "Now Is The Time," "State of Your America" and "god." (Yes, that's with a small g.) With the exception of "Now Is The Time," the songs are rockers, that have a serious groove to them. "Now Is The Time" is mid-tempo tune that has a strong vocal resemblance to the Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds."

Lyrically, most of the songs are observations or commentary on the world around us, from a biblical viewpoint. The rockers are stronger than the ballads, in my opinion. In another resemblance to Extreme, Youngblood seems to be following somewhat in the footsteps of Nuno Bettencourt. Besides doing the lead vocals and guitar, he also wrote the songs and produced the album. And a pretty impressive debut it is.