Review: Tyketto – 'Reach'

Ironic that ‘Reach’ hits the airwaves the same day as ‘Human Nature’ from Hardline… two melodic hard rock bands that made quite an impression in the early 90’s with two astonishing debut albums. Two albums held up as benchmarks by fans of the genre. For Tyketto, their 1991 debut ‘Don’t Come Easy’ is rightly hailed as a genuine classic, but it suffered from being released in the same year as ‘Nevermind’ and ‘Ten’ and the resulting shift away from ‘hair’ bands. For a while, you couldn’t switch on MTV and not see Tyketto vocalist Danny Vaughn using his mic stand as an extra limb on the video for ‘Forever Young’. Perhaps the best melodic hard rock track of the last few decades? So, after a few lineup changes over the decades, and periods of inactivity (where Vaughn formed Eagles tribute act, Ultimate Eagles), the band have settled on what seems a stable line up, and thus ‘Reach’ arrives kicking and screaming. Surprisingly, opening track ‘Reach’ is one of the weakest tracks on the album. The guitar intro is promising, but I felt that there were too many periods within the song where the riffs disappear. Vaughn still has an incredible voice, even after all these years, and it is great to hear him in full flow again. ‘Big Money’ is a cautionary tale about the evils of big corporations running/ruining the world, but for me that raises a quandary which has puzzled me many times. Artists like to wax lyrical about ‘the man’ screwing over the little guy with elaborate tax avoidance etc, but not many artists won’t put their product on these same sites that they sing about. I’d have much more respect for bands if they made a stance and said, “Please just buy the product direct from us, rather than yet another soulless monster company”. ‘Kick Like A Mule’ features some chunky bass grooves from Chris Childs, who, apart from taking time out from his day job with Thunder, also played with Vaughn in Ultimate Eagles. The song is way different from what you might consider a traditional Tyketto sound, with it’s pounding drum beat throughout and kudos to the band for mixing it up. ‘Circle The Wagons’ is another moment, which like the title track, passes me by. It’s too clean, and even the guitar solo near the end can’t rescue it for me. From here on in though, the album excels, and more than makes up for previous indiscretions, I’ll even allow the finger clicking on ‘I Need It Now’, as the song opens with a Faith No More bass vibe, before a killer guitar riff roars in. ‘Tearing Down The Sky’ has a groove straight out of the 90’s glory days, but the layered vocals make it sound fresh, and the guitar solo is mighty impressive. Tyketto’s “sound” was an acoustic intro, complete with emotionally wrought vocals, giving way to an arena filling “power ballad”. ‘Letting Go’ closely follows these ingredients. The acoustic guitar can be a powerful instrument, if used correctly and Tyketto use it well on both ‘Letting Go’ and the album closer ‘The Run’, the standout track on ‘Reach’. The acoustic intro leads into a massive four minutes of top quality melodic hard rock that American acts do so well. It must be all those open roads and huge spaces that provide the inspiration for so many classic driving songs, and this is another. Apart from a few brief bumps in the road, this is an enjoyable album that improves with each listen. ‘Reach’ is available now through Frontiers Music, with Tyketto hitting the road on November 13th for a month of dates throughout Europe.