Jeff Scott Soto – One Night In Madrid

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Releasing a second album in under a month after fronting W.E.T. for their self-titled debut, this double-disc live album was recorded earlier this year on the tour for the Beautiful Mess album. The uncut set, a little over 90 minutes, includes all the guitar, drum and vocal solo spots and jams amongst an excellent mixture of tracks from throughout Soto’s career, mostly from his solo albums and the funkiest selections from the Talisman catalogue. Several songs from Beautiful Mess are included, with an extended version of the excellent funk rock work-out Mountain sandwiching a superb guitar solo being the pick of the bunch. The whole thing is closed with a remarkably well-worked twelve-minute medley of covers including Play That Funky Music, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites The Dust, Stayin’ Alive, Brick House and bizarrely Kung Fu Fighting and Macho Man, amongst several others. Soto has released several live albums in his career, but this one is easily the best. It shows off a great band able to play off each other and jam on medleys as easily as their deliver the rehearsed album tracks. Apart from a couple of shakey moments on the lengthy mid-set piano medley, Soto is in his usual fine voice as well, particularly when replicated the screams on Stand Up.

Written by Andy Lye
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