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Sould SirkUS - World Play
Warner Brothers / Frontiers Records
Rating - 10/10 or 9/10 for re-release
Review - Steve Atkinson/Dougie
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Prior to writing this review, I’d just looked at www.soulsirkus.com and found that the original drummer, Deen Castronovo has been replaced by Virgil Donato (Steve Vai, Planet X). Castronovo has wanted to spend more time with his family before Journey’s summer tour 2005. He’s left his indelible mark on a fine album. This is almost Rock-Supergroup territory. When you consider the list of bands that the collective musicians on “World Play” have been involved with: Talisman, Whitesnake, Humanimal, Journey, Ted Nugent, Hardline, Thin Lizzy, Malmsteen to name but a few, the pedigree is obvious, if not impressive. Make no mistake, this is balls out Rock’n’Roll. “Highest Ground” kicks off the show and demonstrates Schon and Jeff Scott Soto at their very best. Schon keeps coming up with the riffs and this is a stormer. It has a very “Van Hagar” groove, back in the “5150” era. Classic opener. The pace picks up for “New Position”, an out and out rocker. Lyrically, the hooks are there. It’s an album you kinda fall into, unconsciously tapping your feet. I like the overall balance of the album, “Another World has a majestic, stomping quality and on completely the other hand “Soul Goes On” is more reflective, a bluesy tale, showcasing Neal Schon’s incredible feel and restraint on the guitar. As far as the song writing is concerned, Messers Schon and Soto have outdone themselves. Utter quality. A good mix of balls out and soul searching. It would be easy to class this album as the Schon/Soto show but the rock that Soul SirkUs is built on, is squarely in the hands of the Mendoza/Castronovo show. A filthy, bottom end bass and sharp but powerhouse drummer. Virgil Donato has some big boots to jump into and is no less talented. Ironically, one of Jeff Scott Soto’s best performance’s, is on “Coming Home”, the album closer. And it’s the best Journey song, Steve Perry never sang. Sorry, but it is. Soto’s voice is immaculate, on this and throughout. He has an incredible talent. Individually, as musicians, these guys have been around for a few years and you can tell. They know exactly what they’re doing. Quality songs and outstanding performance equate to an album of hard edged, bar room rock and gilt edged pieces of genius. Anybody got the tour dates?. Editors Note: Slightly unusual one this, as Soul Sirkus' World Play has now been re-released in an expanded format with different cover art by Frontiers Records. With this in mind we passed the new version of the album off to Dougie to write a new review, comparing and contrasting the two versions and to find out whether it was worth buying this edition if you already own the Warner Brothers release. What we have here is the Frontiers edition of the Soul Sirkus album that originally surfaced last year on the Internet via Warner Brothers. The main reason for this new version of the album is that drummer Dean Castronovo left the band to be replaced by Virgil Donati. First the bad news although the CD boasts 18 tracks on the cover listing this is not entirely accurate due to the fact that Track 1, 'World Play' is the original intro Highest Ground on the original pressing and the tracks designated 16 & 17 are simply 'Soul Spaces' and prove to be a couple of minutes of silence! (What’s the point)? So in truth that leaves fifteen tracks of which eleven featured on the original release. So the main difference between this version of the album and the Internet version is the drumming. (NO SHIT SHERLOCK). Dean Castronovo is an excellent drummer but he is a “rock” drummer were as Virgil Donati comes from a jazz background and this shows in the little extra fills that he fits into the smallest spaces on the album. This is most evident during the intro to 'New Position, which is now more complicated and heavier sounding that the original and even reminds me of the opening to rock and roll by led zeppelin in places! Whereas both Another World and Soul Goes On sound the same to this reviewers ears. Alive is the first new track on offer on this edition of World Play and is a great track showing off the quality of the musician ship contained in the band without being a widdle fest. 'Periled Divide' was always one of my favourite tracks on the original and this version sounds a lot clearer (not as muddy). 'Peephole' was written by Neal schon Sammy Hagar and sounds like it! (Not a first for JSS to sing a Sammy Hagar as 'Stand Up And Shout' from the Rock Star soundtrack was also written by the red Rocker.) Next up is Marco Mendoza's bass solo 'Abailar To Mundo' which proves to be very funky a la Flea and is the second of the new tracks to make an appearance on this CD. 'Friends 2 Lovers' certainly benefits from the remastering process undertaken for this release and is simply stunning . The keyboards leap out and really drive the song combined with Neal’s excellent Guitar work. 'Praise' still reminds me of a track from the Joe Satriani album 'The Extremist' with excellent vocals from JSS. The comparison with Satriani are hardly surprising in hindsight, as he was scheduled to be the other guitar player in the aborted Planet US project, from whence Soul Sirkus evolved. My Sanctuary is an up temp rocker that benefits from the addition of Virgil’s drumming skills, whereas 'Coming Home' is reminiscent of that other Schon side band Hardline, perhaps a cross between 'Can't Find My Way and 'Change Of Heart? Track 14 'My Love, My Friend is the Jeff Scott Soto solo spot, similar to '2 Your Heart ' from the Human Clay album and and only goes to highlight just how good (and perhaps underated) a vocalist Mr Soto really is. Rounding out the original release was 'Close The Door' which now sites at position fifteen in the track listing, not too bad but to follow this up with two 'Soul Spaces', well the least said the better! Finally comes 'James Brown' and the title really says it all without me adding in my two penneth, yep it’s a “fun” James brown type track. The DVDincluded in this package is canny, given that it contains a short interview and two music videos, one of which is a straight performance shoot and the other a 'in the studio' type and is great if your fan of Neal Schon’s guitar playing. In short if you do not all ready have this album get off your arse and get it now, however if you’ve already splashed out on the original, its a case of if you feel one extra track and three extra musical “moments” plus a short DVD is worth the extra expense then you pays your money and takes your choice! 9/10 if you don’t already have it, if you already have it who knows???? |
 Track List Highest Ground Line Up Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
Track List World Play Line Up Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals
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