The Road

A band with many faces

Mike & The Mechanics have never pampered their supporters with abundance of studio releases, but what has recently happened seems outrageous even for them. Following the 2004 release of Rewired, the ensemble took a sadistic pause for seven long years, In fact, this was a pause taken not by the whole band, but by its leader, Mike Rutherford, who in these seven years practically enrolled a group of new performers. The most important newcomers are the vocalists, Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar. With an updated staff of mechanics completed in 2009, the ever-changing band got down to preparing their seventh long player. Called The Road, it surfaced at the market in spring 2011. In comes as no surprise that none of Mike & The Mechanics fans dared to think that the band, which did not release one record in seven years and went through massive lineup replacements, would preserve their trademark sound. Nevertheless, The Road is going rather to surprise them than to shock.

Vocal competition on The Road

The Road kicks off with the eponymous song that became the debut experience for Andrew Roachford as the band’s lead singer. The music seems to step into the footprints of the old Mike & The Mechanics, but new vocals seeming so far too strange and cold acoustic fingerings sow a seed of doubt and even concern for the whole CD. The following track, Reach Out (Touch The Sun) has the same vocals which do not sound so unfamiliar any longer, while the effective chorus makes the soul genuinely rejoice. Background Noise has another new vocalist, Arno Carstens, a solo performer whose voice turned into a perfect match to this semi-ballad. Only in song number six, Heaven Doesn’t Care, do we hear for the first time Tim Howar as the lead singer. His work helps us discover a great depth and power in this song. Tim, apparently, has to take up initiative more often. Altogether, The Road contains eleven songs opening enough space for every singer to reveal all his skills. The alternation of the vocalists may be a slight distraction from the instrumental part of the album as it takes some time to get used to, but in no way detriments the general effect.

Questions and requests to Mike & The Mechanics

The only question concerning The Road that one is likely to be willing to ask Mike & The Mechanics members is following. Why do they rely so much on looped beats and programmed drums, having a great ensemble of instrumentalists? The massive layer of electronic music makes it difficult ad sometimes impossible to hear the guitar play by Mike Rutherford himself, although this master knows perfectly well what to do with the strings. At the same time, the music, or rather the approach to song-writing, is not so much different than the band’s past works as some fans were afraid it would be. Each second song of The Road is going to remind them of the best episodes from the team’s classic record, Beggar On A Beach Of Gold, made fifteen years ago. Also, we have two requests to the band in general and Mike Rutherford in particular. That would be extremely nice if they did not shuffle the members who seem able to conquer new heights. That would be even nicer if these heights were conquered somewhat more often than every seven years.