Mike Tramp wants you to forget about 1986. Forget that he was in
\nthe band White Lion, forget that he was often seen as one of
\nmetal’s “pretty boys” – forget even about the success his old band
\nhad with “Wait” and “When The Children Cry.”<\/p>\n
That was 1987 and a whole other life ago. Eleven years later,
\nTramp now sports tattoos and a nose ring in place of a mane of wild
\nblond hair, now has a guitar and harmonica strapped to him, and has
\nput the days of pop metal behind him. In its place he has left his
\nsolo debut,
\nCapricorn<\/i>, a personal catharsis of sorts that takes the best
\naspects of AOR rock and brings them into the forefront. And if the
\nskeptics can put the past behind them, they’ll discover an
\nincredible album.<\/p>\n
The ten songs on this disc are incredibly personal, and somewhat
\nshocking from the pictures they paint. “Have You Ever,” a song
\nTramp calls a photo album of his life, displays a life that has had
\nits share of pain and disappointment, but also challenges those of
\nus who might be in the same situation to be willing to put the past
\nbehind us. It’s a song that is painfully beautiful, and I can’t
\nstop listening to it.<\/p>\n
In the same vein, “Love Will Come And Go” is a portrait of
\nconfronting the negatives of a relationship and its ending, but
\nalso looks toward the resiliency of each one of us and the fresh
\nstart each morning brings. “Already Gone” is a slightly
\nharder-edged song in the same vein, in which our hero questions why
\nthe woman he loves (and who doesn’t love him) is still with
\nhim.<\/p>\n
But not everything in
\nCapricorn<\/i> is tears and beer. “Heart Of Every Woman” is one
\nof two logical choices for the leadoff single, combining powerful
\nlyrics and musicianship with another powerful message. The other
\nsong, “Had I Not Complained,” is an incredible performance that is
\nTramp’s declaration of independence from White Lion. (Never mind
\nthe fact that his old bandmate James Lomenzo adds a helping hand to
\nthe vocals and the CD booklet.)<\/p>\n
“Better Off,” a song about child abuse, borrows a page from
\nAerosmith’s “Janie’s Got A Gun” in which the victim kills his
\nabuser, but Tramp dares to ask the musical question, “Is he better
\noff now that his father is dead?” – in short, is the “solution”
\nreally a solution? Powerful stuff, indeed.<\/p>\n
\nCapricorn<\/i> is an early front-runner for the best album of
\n1998 – and the sad thing is that many radio stations won’t want to
\ntake a chance with it because of Tramp’s White Lion image. I don’t
\nknow how many readers we get from mainstream radio, but I’d
\nchallenge them all to give
\nCapricorn<\/i> a spin – and I mean listening to the whole album,
\nnot 15-second snippets – and testing a track or two on their
\nstations. I’ll bet the reaction you get is absolutely
\nincredible.<\/p>\n
If an old cynic like me can take an album like
\nCapricorn<\/i> at face value and see how brilliant of a job Tramp
\nhas done, here’s hoping the rest of us, radio and consumer markets
\nincluded, can do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7251],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38670","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mike-tramp","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38670"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}