Review: Kelly Keeling – Mind Radio

Frontiers Music (2015)

Reviewer: Aaron Chatfield

I still remember hearing Kelly for the first time back in 1990, when I caught Baton Rouge’s ‘Walks Like A Woman‘ on MTV. Since then Kelly has been continued his musical journey, but never risen to the heights that his skills deserve. A multi-instrumentalist, singer, song-writer, who’s ear for melody is unquestionable.
‘This Love Our Paradise’ creeps out from the speakers on a wave of keyboards, piano and ohhs and ahs from Kelly, before the drums bring in the full band. It’s instantly catchy, classic 80s style Melodic Rock, with a good mix that keeps all the instruments in their place. The big chorus will remind you of artists like Stan Bush, Survivor, etc. It’s a good start.

Isolated Man’, ‘Sunshine Over Me’ and ‘Still Need You In My Arms’ follow a similar path, before we arrive at ‘Written In Fire’. This is the first of three tracks co-written with Baton Rouge’s Lance Bullen and songwriter extraordinaire, Jack Ponti. Jack Ponti (and his partner in crime, Vic Pepe) have a very recognisable style and it is heard on this track, which will remind you of those Baton Rouge days. Ponti and Bullen also had a hand in ‘Monkey House’ and ‘Who Do You Run To’ on the album. ‘Monkey House’ is a real throw back to the Baton Rouge debut, sounds awfully like ‘Bad Time Coming Down‘ to me!

The rest of the album ‘Take It To The Limit’, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, ‘Frozen In Time’, ‘Take Me To The Limit’, ‘No Man’s Land’ and ‘Ride The Storm’ are all good album tracks that don’t deviate from the path laid out from the first track and make this album a pretty easy listen if you want that 80s classic melodic rock sound.

My personal opinion, Mind Radio is a good album, some great sonics and no one can argue that Kelly doesn’t have a great set of pipes on him. I prefer this to his other recent releases, ‘Foundry’ and ‘Red Zone Rider’ and I can see me listening to this on a regular basis. There is enough here to appease those wanting a new Baton Rouge album (which those who saw the band at Firefest will know is very unlikely!), as well as those looking for just a good melodic rock album.