JOHNNY VAN ZANT — Brickyard Road (review)

JOHNNY VAN ZANT — Brickyard Road album cover Album · 1990 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Stephen
This is totally out of the blue album, a contrast effort to what one will see through Van Zant's eminence days in Lynyrd Skynyrd. While he can't escape the southern feel 100%, Johnny dominates this album with typical melodic hard rock / AOR and highly accessible to glam fans as well. His vocal is passionate and wonderfully beautiful, especially when I heard his take on 'Love Is Not Enough', a superb ballad and the best track here, and also on 'Love Can Be So Cruel', another ballad that reminds me to Whitesnake so much.

But this album isn't only about slow tempo tracks. Check out 'Three Wishes' or 'Party In The Parking Lot', it's pure rock and roll with heaven-sent choruses. 'Take Every Beat of My Heart' also another gem near the end, a personal favourite, but I urge not to bother with 'Bad 4 U' or 'Just A Little Bit of Love' because it's plainly disposable. 'Brickyard Road' is a nice little ballad and the rest two tracks are so so, not bad by any means though.

Nothing like what I expected first and definitely better than I thought earlier. The production is also very good and I need to underline Johnny's brilliant vocal as the pinnacle of this record. Of course, this album not going to shake any top releases of 1990, but I'll be glad to keep it in my collection for quite a cheap price, and spin it once in a while.
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