Jeff Scott Soto has long been one of my favourite singers, and here we have an interesting concept as this album is a retrospective of sorts, as it contains re-recordings of favourite songs from throughout his career, but he has brought onboard other singers to treat them as duets. Thanks to Covid he was not touring as he was used to, so decided to undertake this project, bringing in mates to help him out. The result is a compilation which also features Eric Martin (Mr. Big), Erik Mårtensson (Eclipse, W.E.T.), Johnny Gioeli (Hardline), Deen Castronovo (Revolution Saints, Journey), Nathan James (Inglorious), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Renan Zonta (Electric Mob), Dino Jelusick, Mats Leven (Candlemass, TSO), BJ (Spektra, SOTO) and Alirio Netto (Shaman, Queen Extravaganza).

When faced with a JSS compilation I am always going to do one thing, namely head straight to the Talisman classic “I’ll Be Waiting”, which here is performed alongside Alirio Netto. I have multiple studio and live versions of this in my collection as I love it, and here the two singers do their best to lift it higher and there is no doubt this is a great performance. JSS looks back through his whole career, so we even get a version of “Don’t Let It End” from Yngwie Malmsteen’s second album ‘Marching Out’ all the way back in 1985. The band he has brought together to provide the accompaniment are top class, with the bass on “Colour My XTC” simply wonderful. Any fans of JSS need to seek this album out, and if somehow you have missed this out but are into melodic rock, then this is a great introduction.

Rating: 8/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/JeffScottSoto/
https://www.frontiers.it/