Issa Crossfire cd review





Issa's "Crossfire" is her fourth album and has been produced by John Greatwood (VEGA) and Vega ivory-tinkler James Martin and co written with the Martin brothers (Tom and James) over the course of the last couple of years with her solo work the sole focus.

There is a plethora of guests on the cd including Daniel Palmqvist (XORIGIN), Alessandro Del Vecchio (HARDLINE), Steve Newman (NEWMAN), Robert Sall (WORK OF ART), Daniel Johansson (DEGREED), Stephen Chesney and a choir including Pete Newdeck (IN FAITH/TAINTED NATION), Matt Black(FAHRAN) and Michael Kew (VEGA) and one very special guest that I will get to in a minute. 

If you haven't heard Issa before then think top notch melodic AOR with plenty of keyboards with references to Heart,Roxette and Romeos Daughter and any would be a good starting point.

Every song is built around Issa's vocals and what a joy they are and perfectly fitting the music be it ballads or rockers.

The title track is a keyboard led fast paced rocker with a big chorus and makes the perfect album opener and first choice for a single.

Here is the video.



" Raintown " gets my vote for favourite moment with the special guest mentioned earlier . Sir Steve Overland from the mighty FM could sing the phone book and I would love it and his duet with Issa is something special. Steve's vocal at the start is sublime and the 2 voices work in tandem wonderfully well on a song that demands a video!!Ballad of the year contender.

Other rockier highlights include the big riff rock of " Long Time Coming " , " Heartbeat " with its driving rock beat that leads into a huge chorus, " Ghost Inside My Heart " 's huge multi layered chorus and "Red Lights " after its keys and vocal intro that builds into an exquisite bridge and chorus. You can see the Martin brother influence on this song as it is one you could see Vega perform. Great guitar solo on that one too.

" Fight Fire With Rain " is another killer ballad with Issa showing of her full range and depth in her voice especially in the pre chorus.

11 tracks of prime time AOR with superb vocals and I am sure fans of Issa and the genre will approve.

 Release date of this new album in Europe is February 20th and  in North America it is February 24th 2015



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