David ROBERTS: "The Missing Years"

Rating: 6/10

Avenue Of Allies 2011

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

"The Missing Years" is a compilation of David Roberts' songs written during his hiatus as a recording artist. With 15 songs on the album, there's a lot of variety in styles, but the quality of songwriting shines through. It's a small wonder that none of these songs weren't picked up by major artists, because they're all classy in their own way. There's AOR, there's rock, there's r'n'b tinged pop and even country flavours here so it's a bit of a mixed bag. I can't claim that I like all of it, but for what its' worth, I think my favourite David Roberts song is on this album - the superb AOR track "I Still Believe". This reminds me of Richard Marx at his best. Another standout track is "Forbidden Fruit", very much in the vein of Van Stephenson and Bad English.

By leaving some of the more pop/r'n'b-styled tracks like the "Shoo-be-do" smooth "No Ordinary Girl" or the George Michael-like "Gone But Not Forgotten" for another album (David Roberts: "The Mushy Years"?), this one would've been a perfectly nice soft-rock album. Now there's just a little bit too much skipping required, but when it's good it's GOOD.