Best known as the composer and performer of the huge early-80s dance hit and the Grammy award winning song "Maniac" (from the movie Flashdance), songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Michael Sembello now returns to his roots with "The lost years" which is a collection of rare and unreleased stuff from 3 of his 4 solo albums,his first one "Bossa nova hotel" have been left out for some reason and that?s a shame because both "Automatic man" and "Cowboy" should be included on this CD,however instead we?re getting a new jazzy version of the superhit "Maniac" which feels rather cool and is a must for all Sembello fans out there. And out of these 13 songs,there are 3 unreleased tracks that sure makes it worth the prize if you think collections are dull,"Love doesn?t live here anymore"(also included on the ?Rock The Bones? compilation sampler from Frontiers)is a great west coast/AOR track that will satisfy you to 100% if you?re into this type of music and the 2 others "One planet,one people" and "Voodoo" are quite good too.
Of the rest we find 3 from "Without walls"(86)and those are the classic ones "What you really want", "Tear down the walls"(featuring Jeff Paris on guest vocals) and "Burn it up",from the album "Caravan of dreams"(92) we find 4 tracks in "Winter of our love","Black rain"(magic song),"Heavy weather" and "Where are we now". Taken from "Backwards in time" (97) are "Rub the stone" and Sembello?s own Jeff Paris hit "The Life of my broken heart",do I need to say more......classic AOR stuff on one CD for the first time with this artist,good job Frontiers that releases it on July 7th.
"The Verve" lost all the money from their hit song "Bitter Sweet Symphony" after it was shown that they were using a sample of the Rolling Stone "The Last Time."
