More commercial hard rock from Mr. Hook—Ken Tamplin. This time around the songs are fuller sonically. A couple of the tunes, "Media Mania" and "Stand Up" show a Delta blues/boogie direction. Ken's fascination and skill with vocals are again showcased, where he's shown growth with each album. "Live Forever" and "Hard Times Comin'" are two good examples, with harmonies splitting the stereo mix as the intro for one and the outro for the other. "Midnight 'N Peru" is a Tamplin-penned acoustic instrumental duet between Ken and Scott Van Zen. It's hot enough to fit right in with an Al Dimeola and John McLaughlin jam. "Stay By My Side" starts off with a melody similar to "Here Comes The Sun", and then slips into a keyboard-laced melodic rocker. "Come And Save Me" is one of many good songs, but this one stands a little bit taller due to the hot lead guitar playing by Van Zen. It's one of the heavier tunes on the album too. "Live Forever" is another highlight, incorporating several methods of drilling a musical phrase into your memory, including diminuendos, vocal harmony textures, mimicking guitar leads, and cool percussion additives. Each time the chorus comes around, it's delivered in a different way. "Loves Eternal Road" may be the best tune he's written. A full-sounding ballad, it incorporates tons of influences and instruments (including an orchestra), and could easily win hearts over the radio. Lyrically, Tamplin is writing like he's used to. He makes his ideas and points known, but not wrapped up in the Christianese/theology 101 language. Much like his Magdallan tunes, where he attacks myths and the ridiculous thinking of some non-believers, a tune like "Media Mania" blasts away at the misuse of information power. This is a good album with a myriad of influences and it only gets better with each listen. It's the best work Tamplin has released thus far, and that's truly saying a lot. This man takes his solo projects seriously, and he does a great job. It's too good to ignore, more mature than most Christian-marketed music, yet still misses that knockout punch by a few decibels—and I can't explain why.