Escape Music (2015)

Lifeline are a UK based melodic rock band with one hell of a lineup, containing Lee Small (SHY, Phenomena, Snowfall), Nigel Bailey (Three Lions, Bailey) both taking their turns on the mic throughout the album along with Paul Hume (Guitar/Producer – Lawless, Demon), Steve Clarkson (Drums – Bailey) and Andy Bailey (Keyboards – Three Lions, Bailey) this is one powerful unit. Having never made any bones about being a massive fan of pretty much everything Lee has worked on and loving Nigel’s work too, straight away my personal excitement levels were pretty high for this release.

From the belting opening track ‘Fear No More‘ which features Lee on vocals, you are shown the direction of this album… Melodic Rock With a driving rhythm section, Lee is one of the finest singers in modern day UK Rock and he’s on absolutely top form here and the advantage of having a couple of top class singers in a band is that the backing vocals are superb all over the album, it adds that little extra dimension to some of the tracks, not exactly Duets as such but more than just someone throwing in the odd harmony or accompaniment for effect, and Nigel’s work on this track is a perfect example, the music is really good too, with a very catchy riff, and the whole thing lifted by the sound of additional keyboards, this is a great start.

It is great to hear a lot of albums of late that don’t have ten or twelve tracks that are just spun out in the exact same style and this album is no exception, all of the writing has been done by Nigel, but it certainly doesn’t just sound like he’s sat down and written one long piece and then chopped it into different song names. What we have here is twelve individual tracks that stand up for themselves, on first listen I actually got the feeling from this release that it was a compilation album, which in itself would have been no bad thing, but the more I’ve listened the more things knit together quite nicely, and although the tracks have different approaches and sounds they work really well together.

‘Jezebel‘ is very different and reminds me of Thin Lizzy in places, but with Nigel taking the lead on this one and Lee winding his way though the middle too this is another excellent song, having such an experienced guitarist as Paul Hume in the project just adds a different layer, and he’s all over this one.

Other highlights for me are ‘Destination Freedom‘ with a couple of terrific solos on it while holding out an ever so slight almost Van Halen sound in the guitar sound in places, but it all sounds very upbeat and positive and ‘Mary Jane‘ which again is unlike anything else on offer here, but still in the Melodic Rock area, but it’s that little bit darker, which is great, once again both vocalists weave the story between them and more really nice guitar work, not to ignore Steve’s drumming , Andy’s keyboards, and Nigel’s bass which are all spot on right through album. One of the more classy tracks I have heard in a long time is ‘Now His Angels Gone‘ which is wonderfully steered by Nigel, he really does have a knack of creating moving ballads with that little something extra, and the delivery is always top notch. With a very simple but oh so effective keyboard intro, the story is delivered amidst more really well balanced guitar work and softened bass, with no instruments overpowering anywhere along the way, I’m sure it would sound even better with a string section as opposed to synthesized accompaniment, but it’s a minor point on a lovely piece.

Overall this album is a really excellent piece of work with each of the individual components blending and working with each other to create a really top quality result, Nigel, Lee, Paul, Steve and Andy should all be really proud of this body of work and it would be wonderful if we get to heard these songs live at some stage as some of them would sound absolutely huge. Mr. Bailey has another winner here and long may that trend continue.