TOBY HITCHCOCK – Mercury’s Down

Pride Of Lions vocal powerhouse Toby Hitchcock steps out on the solo sojourn trail with “Mercury’s Down”. With all the instrumentation and songwriting help under the capable hands of W.E.T. musician Erik Martensson, Toby shines with his majestic high range and note sustaining heroics on songs like “I Should Have Said”, “Strong Enough” and a furious guitar driven, almost Whitesnake-like “Tear Down The Barricades”. Stretching his pipes is natural as Erik gives a lot of this material a crunchier, electric riff oriented base- a natural platform for these songs to hit the stage running.

The first single “This Is The Moment” bridges the natural theatrical-like conventional melodies we’ve come to know and love from Toby with a slightly more diverse musical arrangement- as if Survivor met up with current Journey output- and some surprising double bass flash in the final measures. You can just tell that Erik Martensson understands the abilities and strengths of the singer at hand, and designed material that emphasizes the soaring heavenly melodies and twists you can take. The best work includes the aforementioned uplifting “Strong Enough” and the reflective power ballad “One Day I’ll Stop Loving You” that assuredly would have been blaring across all popular radio stations as a hit single during the 80’s.

For those who believe solo albums should showcase another dimension in an artist repertoire, “Mercury’s Down” will delight not just Toby followers but also those people who seek out killer songwriting, memorable choruses and hooks plus one of a kind vocal prowess. The best of American AOR meeting the latest Scandinavian class means this is a 12 song all around winner. Should up the bar for the next Pride Of Lions release scheduled for 2012…

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