As requested, now we have here a nice piece of music: 1997’s ROD McINNES album titled “Best Kept Secret“.
The ’90s was an obscure decade for the smooth, delicate AOR sounds, and many very good albums from the genre were released via small record labels, hence, turning out of print soon and hard to find in years to come. One of these is “Best Kept Secret”, by Canadian singer & songwriter ROD McINNES.
Produced by talented knob twiddler Terry Brown (Rush, April Wine, Alannah Miles), expect a crystal clear sound on this CD. McInnes’ style is elegant, Light AOR / Westcoast with a touch of melodic rock in the vein of Tim Feehan, Paul Janz, Kurt Howell, and alike. His vocal performance is sweet and rich in harmonies, while the back up band is excellent featuring Zappacosta / The Bushdoctors keyboardist Marco Luciani and Keven Jordan / Gowan drummer Greg Critchley.
Highlights include the extremely melodic opener “When You Fall” mixing relaxing poppy AOR keys with a Westcoast feel, the gracefuk “Someday” with its lovely little chorus, the Journey-like “It’s OK, It’s Alright”, and the pristine ballad “Trials Of The Heart” that sounds taken from an ’80s movie soundtrack.
Then “Last Night Of My Life” is quite insipid, but Rod raises the bar again with the excellent uptempo AOR (again, very ’80s) of “Piece Of Your Heart”.
Rod McInnes and this CD are indeed one of Canada’s “Best Kept Secret”, his one and only album as far we know. A rarity ,bur essentially a good, finely crafted record for all fans& collectors of this breezy AOR sub-genre, with the songs & production definitely focused in the late ’80s / early ’90s.
Highly Recommended
01 - When you fall
02 - Someday
03 - Trials of the heart
04 - It's ok, it's alright
05 - Last night of my life
06 - Piece of your heart
07 - While you were sleeping
08 - Find the love
09 - Road of love
10 - Price to pay
Rod McInnes – Best Kept Secret 1997
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