From XL to WILDKARD, from KICK to FREEFALL, the story of Mikey Jones and his brother Chris is spread for over 20 years now, they are known for providing, under the many incarnations of their musical vision, a strong level of songwriting and a real talent for bringing life to a bunch of catchy tunes in the key of the deaf leopard. FREEFALL's "Rebel Hard" (1996) was published in the darkest era for the Melodic Rock / AOR genre, and it was clearly at that time, a breath of fresh air in this depressive, stinky and gloomy times.

The collaboration between the Jones Bros and the singer Nick Workman (now in full success in fronting VEGA) were legendary in the inner circles of AOR freaks, and some albums like KICK's early "Consider This" or 2007 WILDKARD's sole release titled "Megalomania" are still quite warmly recommended. Today Mikey & Chris Jones are focusing on working by themselves , with the duo who's handling all the instrumentations, Mikey is taking care of the lead vocals and the great studio technical assistance is provided by Chris.

The sound is still on the same line than ever, with a strong keyboard presence, but really lacks in the power, an also perhaps the sheer elegance of their early works, mixing the 80's Stadium style ("Thrill Seeking Junkie") with a less interesting contemporary touch or with some slight Sleaze Rock flavors, sometimes it works ("Urban Refugee" / "Doesn't Take Much" / "Never Lost That Feeling") but most of the time the result is lackluster and very common ("Radio") , we already heard that a thousand times ("The Futures Ours"), the low-key production doesn't help either, the whole album sounds pretty confined and sterile. The attempts to reach another style aren't very attractive like the clumsier cut "Come Back" which seems really out of place here.

To summarize I'll invites you to search into your cd collection of those glorious relics or to try one of the numerous remix available on fucking iTunes instead.