Here at Defenders of the Faith, we’ve gained quite the reputation for covering veteran acts, whether it be in the form of interviews or album and concert reviews. Reviewing new music from an act whose first recorded output dates back to 1964? That HAS to be a first for us! And yet that’s where we find ourselves as we explore Songs from the Warehouse / The Hits Rewired, the latest double album from Russ Ballard: British Invasion rocker turned Argent frontman turned Top 40 hitmaker of millennium. Those who remember our retrospective interview with Ballard in 2021 are more than aware of his connection to the world of hard and heavy music. If you’re not, I advise you to click on the link above and familiarize yourself.
For a man who’s been busy for the better part of the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s (I’m exhausted just typing out those decades!), the ’20s have been a rather quiet period for Ballard, at least in terms of released output. 2020 saw the release of his last studio album, It’s Good to Be Here. While the last half decade since has been calm on the “new music” front, Ballard has remained busy as ever playing shows with his band and writing new music “everyday” (his words, more of which you’ll read tomorrow). And boy, has he been writing, so much so that his latest offering is a double album!
The first half of this new release, Songs from the Warehouse, contains 13 new originals that prove this master hasn’t lost his touch one bit. Musically consisting of soaring ’80s AOR epics (“Resurrection”, “Courageous”, “Fearless”) and singer-songwriter forays reminiscent of those that varied the heavy prog affairs of Argent (“Journey Man”, “Charlatan”, “Soul Music”), what threads all these songs together is a sense of wisdom that only comes with 80 years of life experience come this Halloween. In this respect, one could compare this latest offering from Ballard to the latter day efforts of fellow legends Ozzy Osbourne, Alan Parsons, and Dennis DeYoung. However, even at his most introspective, Ballard never comes off as a man nearing the finish line of this thing we call life. If anything, Songs is the sound of a man grateful for his past, and eager for the future, both of which collide on the album’s second disc.
Hence the title, The Hits Rewired sees Ballard revisit 13 of his biggest hits with reenergized arrangements and a modern production job. I know, I know. The red flags are waving already, aren’t they? Well fear not, because unlike 99.99% of re-recordings, these don’t suck! In fact, in the case of songs like “You Can Do Magic” (as made famous by soft rockers America) and “I Know There’s Something Going On” (immortalized by my first true love, Frida of ABBA fame), it’s the first time we hear the man responsible for said songs give us his recorded spin on them. “I Know There’s Something Going” on takes the cake for this here self-admitted ABBA addict, SCREAMING out of the speakers with ’80s AOR force and ambition. Other highlights include the aforementioned “You Can Do Magic”, the anthemic “I Surrender” (one of the greatest singalongs of all time), the quirky “On the Rebound”, and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, restored in its original ’70s form prior to being KISSified.
On the out chance you’ve managed to go an entire lifetime unfamiliar with Ballard’s repertoire (which I’d argue is impossible to be done knowingly so by anybody who’s lived through the 20th century), Songs from the Warehouse / The Hits Rewired serves as the perfect two in one primer to acquaint yourself with this legend amongst men. Over the course of two discs and 26 songs, Ballard blurs the line between past, present, and future, openly embracing his legacy, while eagerly expanding upon it with the same passion heard on his classic ’70s and ’80s albums. Indeed, the fire still burns!
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: Argent, Magnum, Rainbow
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