Life/5 Out of 5: Live in Japan [IMPORT] [LIVE]

Talisman

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 30, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Rock Treasures
• ASIN: B0000CFYP4
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #343,599 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Tears in the Sky

2. Crazy

3. Body

4. Temptation

5. Loveblind

6. Soul 2 Soul

7. All That Really Matters

8. A Life

9. Sympathy

10. So Long

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Mysterious (This Time It's Serious)

2. Standin' on Fire

3. Comin' Home

4. If U Would Only Be My Friend

5. I'll Be Waiting

6. Time After Time

7. All I Want

8. Dangerous

9. U Done Me Wrong

10. Break Your Chains

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars I've reviewed each album separately here...., April 11, 2008

By	Paul Lawrence "'EJL'" (Australia) - See all my reviews

OK - the first bit is my review of the album Life...

Talisman just like an endless procession of mainly European bands during the 90's and 00's are akin to an old sailors home. The sort of place where occasionally employed types wash up in. But one saving grace for sailors homes is the fact that you'll find plenty of experienced hands there. As Marcel Jacob quips in the liner notes on some releases of this disc he pretty much tops the list of mentions in the Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.

The album itself is full of tasteful generic hard rock. There are some studio tricks tried such as the way tracks five and six seque into one another. A few styles are given a workout from the vocally driven Soul 2 Soul which has a touch of funk and a pleasant open structure to the more muscular Tears In The Sky and Body. Good riffs are to be found here as well such as those of All That Really Matters which also has a catchy chorus to boot. And Hands Of Time rides a bass heavy attack to a soulful perfection.

With competent production values, solid and honest songcraft and of course the vox of Jeff Scott Soto Talisman - at least on this album - should appeal to fans of non hysterical hard rock and given the nice chorus and riff work here this disc makes for a fine highway driving soundtrack.

And here is a review for the live album....

In this release of this album there are liner notes by Marcel Jacob wherein he publicly disses this release stating that the title actually is an irony - that he chose the title as he felt nobody else would give this 5 out of 5. So it's sort of hard to put such things out of your mind when first you listen to this live offering by the collection of hard rock journeymen known as Talisman.

Despite the live setting production here is fine as most of the crowd noise filtered out. The musicianship seems fine. I've no idea if there were lots of overdubs or what - and the songs themselves are very indicative of the sort of generalist hard rock the band produce. That being PG rated hard rock with nice riffs and Jeff Scott Soto crooning away over the top in his full bodied way.

Personal favourites here would proably include the tunes Comin' Home which has an insistent delivery and the encore All Or Nothing which scoots along nicely.

Fans of Talisman should probably pick this up if they can find it reasonably well priced but if you've no real affinity for them then this release won't change your mind. But it's twelve tracks of generalist hard rock that like other Talisman product is good for highway cruising.


All up I'd give Life a 3.5 star rating and the live album scrapes into three star territory. Together they make a healthy four star package if you can get it cheap.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic melodic rock album, reissued, October 26, 2007

By	Justin Gaines "Corporate Rocker" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Originally released in 1995, Life was the 5th album from Swedish melodic rockers Talisman, which featured powerhouse vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (Takara, Yngwie Malmsteen, and way too many others to list here). Leave it to the Swedes to boldly forge ahead with a melodic hard rock sound at a time when mainstream radio and MTV had long sine moved on to all things alternative (for MTV this was a last stop before abandoning music altogether).

Life is another in a growing line of high quality melodic rock albums from Talisman. If the 80's AOR and hard rock sound was allowed to grow and progress without record company interference, this is what it would sound like. Life has all of the strengths of the classic Journey/Foreigner sound, but with a more modern feel, proving that an upbeat "party" rock & roll album doesn't have to be immature or dated. It's a great album from start to finish, but I have to call special attention to the band's cover of the Seal hit "Crazy", which is the highlight of Life.

Just about any release by Talisman falls under the "must have" heading for all dedicated melodic rock fans, and Life is no exception. If you're planning on picking it up, I highly recommend the 2005 Rock Treasures reissue of Life, which features digitally remastered sound, 3 bonus demo tracks, and the entire 5 out of 5 - Live in Japan album as a bonus disc. Talk about a deluxe edition! I'd have bought it just for the remastering, but the extra live album was a nice touch.