Metal Asylum

Soto has been around awhile and has performed with many bands as lead vocalist (Talisman, Takara, Humanimal, etc.) and as backing vocalist on many albums. Soto had a brief stint as vocalist for Journey during 2006-2007 and performed and toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 2008. I first became familiar with Soto from Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force album "Marching Out" (1985). Too bad he didn’t continue in this genre; nothing since has topped that. Fast forward to the mid-90’s when I reacquainted with him in Takara and then into his solo career.

I would describe Soto’s solo material as melodic rock meets (a little bit of) funk. You can still find the funk-inspired elements in the upbeat songs of "Beautiful Mess" (like ‘21st Century’, ‘Mountain’, ‘Bring It Home’), but they are few and far between due to the noticeable lack of upbeat songs. Regardless, still plenty of good tunes here. Soto has never had a problem creating good melodies, and this album is no exception. More clean, acoustic guitar, examples; ‘Gin & Tonic Sky’, ‘Hey’, which goes along with the preponderance of slower tunes. The crunchy guitar rhythm on ‘Eye’ and complementary guitar melody line on ‘Testify’ are nice touches, though this is about all the electric guitar you’ll really hear with not even one short guitar solo on the disc.

Predictably, the topic of almost every song is life or relationships. These topics can cover a lot of ground, but it would benefit him to expand a bit. I loved Soto’s 2005 release "Prism", which had more creativity and was truly "melodic rock" while this new release is really more in the "soft rock" genre. Overall, a good album with many solid tunes, but I’m hoping for a turn back to a heavier JSS next time around.

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Jeff Scott Soto - Beautiful Mess