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The memorable voice behind big 80’s hits like “High on You”, “The Search is Over” and “Burning Heart” is back with a new album titled, Crossroads Moment. Jimi Jamison, best known for his stint as frontman for Survivor, is out on his own after leaving the group in 2006. The interesting thing about this project is that former Survivor keyboardist and songwriter – Jim Peterik is on hand as producer and main collaborator. So as you might imagine, the songs on the album sound a lot like Survivor. In fact, the album sounds too much like mid-80’s Survivor right down to the pseudo-metal guitar sounds and Peterik’s signature keyboard patches. I’m not sure if it was their intention but the limited sound palette that they utilized on the album unfortunately made listening through the whole album a bit monotonous. After listening to the same guitar/bass/drums/piano arrangements over and over again, you just wish for some new sound elements to appear but they never come. It’s too bad because there are some nice gems on the album that could have been HUGE hits back in the day. Ballads like “As Is” and “Lost” sound like they could have come straight out of Survivor’s hey-day back in 1986. “Crossroads Moment” and “That’s Why I Sing” are two other well written songs found on the album. The downfall of the record are some real cheesy moments including the “We are the World” for 80’s rockers anthem titled “When Rock was King”. It’s an absolute cringe-fest with lame lyrics sung earnestly by a bunch of long-lost singers including Dave Bickler, Mickey Thomas and Mike Reno. You simply can not keep yourself from laughing whenever this song comes on. It’s unintentionally hilarious. I feel bad to see the cheese factor come into play here since I like Jimi Jamison and Jim Peterik. When the songwriting and the performances come together, the magic is still there. If they could only dial down the cheese, things would be so much better.

retroGrade : C

Jimi Jamison
Crossroads Moment
label: Frontiers Records
released: November 2008
Produced By: Jim Peterik & Larry Millas

musicians on Crossroads Moment:
vocals: Jimi Jamison
guitars: Jim Peterik, Mike Aquino, Joel Hokstra
drums: Ed Breckenfield
bass: Klem Haye
keyboards: Jim Peterik, Christian Cullen, Jeff Lanz

TrackList:
Battersea
Can’t Look Away
Make Me A Believer
Crossroads Moment
Bittersweet
Behind The Music
Lost
Love The World Away
She’s Nothing To Me
As Is
‘Til The Morning Comes
That’s Why I Sing
Friends We Never Met
When Rock as King
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music, reviews by retroDan