NEWMAN - PRIMITIVE SOUL (2007, CHROME DOME)
Steve Newman - vocals, guitars, keyboards
Rob McEwen - drums, percussion

Background
Steve Newman is a regular name found on this site. We've reviewed most of his albums here, plus we interviewed him back in 2003. For most of his recording career Steve has used Escape Music as his backbone. Strangely, Steve and the label have parted ways. Whereas Steve continues to deliver quality melodic rock, Escape Music have recently delved into signing second-tier artists short on experience and an alarming inability to deliver a quality listening experience. Despite having a few good acts on their roster (namely Final Frontier), it seems unthinkable that Escape could let Steve do just that. escape. However, if Steve has done a 'Trent Reznor - let's do it all by myself' runner as a self-styled musician come businessman, then all power to him. It suggests to me that he will be the first of many artists going alone and effectively cutting out the middleman, and retaining all ownership rights and profits. The only downside is that he has to market himself a bit stronger, now that no label or publicist is doing that job. So what of his latest 2007 effort 'Primitive Soul'? After listening to it, Steve never shirks on detail and attention. Even the subject matter is interesting and different.

The Songs
Newman provides a guitar instrumental intro to fire up the opening of 'Heading For Your Heart' - an anthemic 'girl-hunts-down-boy' tale of love and lust. '15 Minute Revolution' throws a spanner at the media for spurious reporting, and it's a spanner that should be pointed squarely at those irresponsible entities for unnecessarily sensationalizing their stories. The title track is best played loud, with the grinding rhythm guitar and Giantlike touches complimenting each other well. It's not too long before we encounter a ballad - 'Still Can't Find The Words', the acoustic guitar and keyboard layers are prominent, with a only a soaring solo found at the end. The cascading keyboard intro on 'Last Flight' converts to a vicious rocker that Gary Moore would be proud of. This is the tale of a missing flight of bombers over the Bermuda Triangle in late 1945. 'Falling Like Stone' is a harsh sounding rocker, the same can't be said of 'For The Man I Am' which is trademark Newman! Steve doesn't take much respite during the remainder of the album, all the tracks rock hard out to the end, even though 'Rapture' tends toward ballad territory, and 'Give It All You Got' touches on Harem Scarem's style of hard rock.

In Summary
If you've heard all of Newman's albums, then you will obviously have your own favorite to choose. For me, that award goes to 1999's 'One Step Closer', where he struck a rich vein of form. Over time, he has retained a certain quality about his music, and hasn't deviated too far off the beaten track of melodic hard rock. Congrats to Steve for going it alone, and hopefully he can also provide his input into other projects as well to keep up his continuity. 'Primitive Soul' is one that will appeal to guitar-based hard rockers as opposed to the fluffy big pink keyboard brigade.

URL: www.newmansound.com

Track Listing:
01 Heading For Your Heart
02 15 Minute Revolution
03 Primitive Soul
04 Still Can't Find The Words
05 Last Flight
06 Falling Like Stone
07 For The Man I Am
08 Cold Day In Hell
09 I Get Torn
10 Rapture
11 Give It All You Got
12 Mystery To Me

Rating:


Related Articles:

Newman - 1997 Newman

Newman - 2001 Dance In The Fire

Newman - 2003 Sign Of The Modern Times

Interview with Steve Newman (August 2003)

Newman - 2006 Heaven Knows

Newman - 2007 Primitive Soul

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