Verity - Interrupted Journey (Reissue, Remastered) (1983/2012)

John Verity replaced Russ Ballard in the group Argent starting with 1975's Circus album. On this 1984 release by the band Verity on the Polygram-distributed Compleat record label, there's plenty of help from Verity's friends, including Rod Argent, Ballard, and Mike Rutherford, major talents who, unfortunately, are unable to pull this attempt out of the "almost" bin. The production by the singer is thin, featuring hollow drums and shrill guitars when the material cries out for a richness that both Verity and Rod Argent helped Matthew Fisher get on his 1980 self-titled solo album. Verity's version of Genya Ravan's classic "Stay With Me" (called "Stay With Me Baby" here) needs to come off like Nazareth doing a heavy "Love Hurts," but it does not. Two originals, "Just Another Day (In the Life of a Fool)" and "Love Is Blind," both which coincidentally sandwich the Jerry Ragovoy blues classic "Stay With Me," are the most promising. Infiltrated by '80s pop, "Love Is Blind" emulates Loverboy's "Turn Me Loose" from a few years earlier, but fails to achieve that level of excitement. Years after its release, this album doesn't hold up well, though the cover art of a white circle of light above a hot car enhanced by gothic lettering all look appealing enough. Pat Travers did material like "Are You Ready for This" with more bite and grit. When you hear how powerful a job Fisher and Christopher Taylor White did on the aforementioned Matthew Fisher album, with Verity on board, there's simply no excuse. When an artist branches out from his main gig there has to be explosive and captivating material if the music is going to make any sort of impact. The verdict on Verity is that this sounds more like an interrupted journey than a cohesive and creative work.