Custom Built

Michaels came back to the favorite craft

He must be making solo albums more often. A thought like that flashes in the minds of Bret Michaels’s followers every time they try his new studio efforts. Once the vocalist of a very popular and successful hard- and glam-rock band Poison, Bret Michaels seems to be trying to find his a new vocation in the field where he is not expected and, probably, even not wanted. The musician is regularly featured on TV playing in series and reality shows, which proves to yield poorer results that writing and playing good old hard rock. However, there are times when Michaels scrapes a moment to go to the sound recording studio. Recently, the man has again managed to get down to the craft he loves the most, early in July, rockers all over the world received from Bret another studio long player, Custom Built. The previous full-length effort, Freedom Of Sound, saw the light of day five years and a half ago. You can imagine how much Bret’s supporters were looking to hearing from him. They are going to be a little bit upset about the fact that among the twelve tracks of the album, only eight are Michaels’s previously unreleased compositions. Well, Bret has long been involved in many other activities and he often puts in the first place something different from music. Anyway, what the musician has delivered is in many ways interesting.

Heading for diversity

First of all, Michaels decided to bring some variety into his music and, staying loyal to hard-rock, afforded himself adding some country songs. And when you hear them (Open Road, or Rock’n My Country), you will be amazed how naturally they sound performed by Bret. There will be some music lovers who will believe that this genre has been explored by the singer for many years. Before passing to hard-rock, let’s have a taste of the acoustic Nothing To Lose (Bret Only Demo). This track is more impressive that the other variant of the same composition because it reveals more emotions and makes lyrics more available and comprehendible, and even may drive some sentimental individuals to tears. Of course, Custom Built has some of good old hard rock material presented here by such powerful and dynamic pieces as I’d Die For You, and Lie To Me. One more important thing is that Bret could not resist a temptation to go too far into experiments. The club mix of Go That Far, quite a good song off Rock My World, is something absolutely alien in the stylistic and acoustic medium formed by the rest of the set of the album.

Custom Built is one of Michaels’s rare and valuable albums

Custom Built is a work of a reputed artist who earned respect and adoration from a massive audience long ago. At this stage of his career, Bret Michaels can simply enjoy the very process. He clearly does not plan to arrange a revolution in the rock-music kingdom, neither does he desire to develop a new image or conquer charts. Michaels now savors the music as he is writing and making whatever he wills and whenever he wants. In the meantime, the singer keeps staying in perfect shape and demonstrates a high level of professionalism. The performer of his status automatically acquires a right to have experiments over his own music, which may appear a complete surprise (sometimes pleasant and sometimes far from pleasant) to listeners. Custom Built is not line Bret’s previous solo works because its material is more diversified. Anyway, the album is interesting at least because we have not heard from this musicians anything new for a long time, and no one really knows when he will go to the studio again.