To tie in with Gary’s new solo album, ‘Waterside’, Frontiers Music have also released a compilation which looks back at his career outside Ten. Newly remastered format, here we have numbers taken from his albums ‘Precious Ones’, ‘Veritas’, ‘Once and Future Kings Parts I and II’ and ‘Gary Hughes’, plus rarities that have only previously been issued in Japan. It does mean we don’t have material from his first album ‘Big Bad Wolf’ (which was reissued as ‘Strength of Heart’), but there is plenty here to show what a great singer he is. To my mind he has always struck me as a cross between David Coverdale and Greg Lake, with a melodic tone which stays in the mid-range, which is quite unusual in a genre that normally likes their singers to be able to sing high in contrast to the guitars and bass underneath.

I remember reviewing the two ‘Once and Future Kings’ albums when they came out in the early 2000’s, and always felt they never gained the recognition they really deserved, so it is nice to see some of that material being available again. It is when the band is moving at pace and Gary has an iron control over the top that this set works best, such as on “Veritas” itself, where the arrangement is punchy, and the keyboards make their presence felt but never to the detriment of the guitars. I can listen to material like that all day, or how about “Perfect Ten” which is Living Colour at their best, with a funky drive which makes one immediately think of ‘Time’s Up’. There is a solid group of songs which show melodic rock really thrives when in the hands of someone who really knows what he wants, his own strengths, and then brings together the people to make it work. It is one of the reasons why Ten have been such a success over so many years.

But there are other times when it doesn’t gel quite as it should, such as the drums on “In Your Eyes” where I think the nicest thing anyone can say about them is that they are pedestrian, and whoever thought the snare should be that high in the mix was obviously having a bad day. But no matter the song, the focus is generally on Gary and his rich baritone voice. This set will obviously be of interest to fans of Ten, his solo career, or melodic rock in general, and if you have yet to come across his solo career then this is a good place to start.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.tenofficial.com/
https://www.frontiers.it/