Michael Gleason
Children of Choices
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
Take the smooth vocals you heard from Michael Gleason on AD's first two albums, and mix it with the commercial rock of the Elefante-penned Kansas tunes...and you get a good idea of the quality found here. Fans of Petra will drop their mouths open in awe. This music is impeccably produced, as each song crafts a good melody with layers of BGV's and keys. So, you're going, "BGV's, keys, Petra? hmmm...sounds like pop music." Well, you guessed right. Fans of AD's complex "Livgren-orchestrations" will be disappointed at the lack of classically-influenced, high-techno progressive music. It's close. Pakaderm has coined a good descriptive phrase to describe it: "Progressive power pop." With "Children of Choices", Michael Gleason holds its own with the likes of Jefferson Starship, thanks to his own skills as a songwriter, and the production skills of John and Dino at Pakaderm. There's a full band sound. The lyrics stake their claim at the heart of our biggest choices: between flesh and spirit; darkness and light; hell and heaven. It'll be a shame if Michael doesn't get the wide attention he deserves.