Stephen
7th Heaven is perhaps one of the most successful indie bands America ever made. If you live around Illinois, this brand should be very familiar, since their first day in 1985, they've been consistently performing live with an average 200 shows each year and written over 500 songs throughout their career. The unusual album's title of "USA/UK" came from the merge of Irish singer, Keith Semple, and the original American band, led by Richie Hofherr as the band's mastermind.
Eighteen tracks for a single album is looking a bit too much, unless they're a grindcore act, but if you're afraid they stuffed the record with fillers, then you're wrong. 7th Heaven seems doesn't know how to make any bad songs at all, in fact, from the opening track, "Better This Way", all the way to the bottom, "While You Dream", are fully enjoyable, and not many bands that can cleverly put out a flexible arrangement that will please the father and the daughter at the same time. Musically, this is like a mix of Def Leppard's "Adrenalize" era with Savage Garden's "Affirmation", so you'll encounter the catchy hooks, big harmony vocals, killer melodies, and poppish flair, all mixed gently in one bowl, at the same time.
Semple has a truly wonderful voice, he's like Joe Elliot meets Bryan Adams, with an occasional touch of Darren Hayes. There are at least six old tracks from the double-album, "Silver", that was re-recorded with Semple's vocal, and most of them are nicely done, "Cellophane", "Kill The Cycle", and "Ghost of Me" are examples of the particular higlights. In my opinion, focusing on strongest tracks and try squeezing this album down to 11-12 tracks are better to let the listeners undistracted by the quantity hence automatically emphasized the quality. Leaving out "Still Be Here", "Gravity", "Electronic Karma", or "Winning It All" for another album or compilation are acceptable, but brilliant tracks such as "Better This Way", "Gave You My Word", "Save Your Life", or "Tragedy" are essential.
A very good album for melodic fans and if you take your kids out to their concert, guaranteed some words such as "Dad, they're cool!" will come out as soon as it's over. They deserved the world's attention and if only a major label will promote them out, selling millions of this is only a matter of time.