Veritas [Import]

Gary Hughes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 27, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Frontiers
• ASIN: B000WNAXCK
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #570,568 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Gary Hughes established himself as one of England's premiere singer Melodic and Hard Rock songwriters. He was involved in Bob Catley solo albums (both as a producer and songwriter), Hugo's solo debut (as a producer) and not to mention his albums with the band Ten plus three solo albums and one rock opera in 2 chapters! ''Veritas'', his new solo album truly feels like the natural successor to ''Precious Ones'', Gary Hughes' last solo output dated 1998. Given the long awaited nature this album and the anticipation already beginning I have been working really hard to make this album the best I possibly can" says Gary. The stunning final result is guaranteed to cement the reputation of Gary Hughes as a songwriter and producer and shows the class and the immense quality of British hard rock school, heir of the tradition of such giants as Whitesnake, Rainbow, UFO and Thin Lizzy! Musicians on the album include: Gary Hughes himself on keyboards and orchestrations, TEN bandmates Chris Francis and John Helliwell, drummer Dave Ingledew and bass player Rick Stewart (Devil To Pay), Jason Robinson on drums (Absent Minds) and Simon Brayshaw on bass (Nightshift).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smooth solo album from the voice of Ten, December 1, 2010

By 

Justin Gaines (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Veritas (Audio CD)

2007's Veritas is the third solo album from Ten mastermind Gary Hughes. I'm not entirely sure why Hughes - who is the singer, producer and chief songwriter for Ten - needs to do solo albums, especially with members of Ten on board, but I'm a big fan of his work so I had to pick up a copy of Veritas.

As I expected, Veritas sounds a lot like a Ten album. Well, one of Ten's more AOR-sounding albums at least. There's not much in the way of bombastic pomp rock or soaring hard rock songs here. Instead the focus is on the lighter side of the Ten sound - smooth ballads and mid-tempo love songs. It's not my favorite style, but I have to admit Hughes does this kind of music extremely well. His voice is rich, warm and just perfect for crooning love songs. He's also been at this long enough to know how to write some pretty powerful ballads. The music, vocals, songwriting and production on Veritas is all high-caliber, as you might expect. My only real complaint is that Hughes doesn't really venture out from his comfort zone at all. The songs are all good, but they're all pretty familiar.

It may not offer anything new, but any new Gary Hughes release is still worth owning. If you liked his previous solo albums, you'll enjoy Veritas as well. Ten fans should enjoy it as well, as long as you aren't expecting another The Robeor Babylon (Name of the Rose maybe).

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AOR's best singer-songwriter, April 16, 2008

By 

king wolf (Jotunheim) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Veritas (Audio CD)

The single biggest problem the AOR genre has is a lack of serious criticism. The dominant review websites are run by people who have poor taste and who frankly know very little about singing or songwriting. The biggest one gives silly, generic stuff like Toto "album of the year" awards while often under-rating or ignoring real quality.

Hughes is the man behind the band Ten, the best AOR/light metal act of the last two decades. His gift for vocal melodies is unsurpassed in the history of the genre, his lyrics are far more intelligent than the usual AOR lovey-dovey cliches, and he is certainly one of the very best vocalists AOR has ever seen.

But as I mentioned, a lot of the internet busybodies reviewing "melodic rock" don't know anything about lyric writing (as evidenced by their poor composition skills in their reviews) and less about singing. They seem to only like high tenors showing off their vocal range and technical abilities while ignoring the things that actually matter. Hughes, like all the best male singers in pop music history (Elvis and Sinatra being only the most obvious examples) is a high baritone. This alone elevates the sound of his records above the usual sissy-squealing of the rest of the pack, but more than that, he actually understands singing - phrasing, breathing, projection. The squealers and the reviewers who love them do not.

Lastly, for some reason some of the reviewers took this album to task for its "production", by which they evidently mean the mix. There's nothing wrong with the mix here. In some places on some songs it's a little experimental, but nothing is inaudible or out of place. The mainstream AOR reviewers want everything to sound the same (the good but sterile and predictable mixes of Dennis Ward are the standard), every voice to sound alike (a scratchy high tenor), every lyric to consist of empty cliches (to prevent their little brains from having to think while they're humming along in their car with the top down). Hughes delivers none of the above, so he is too often overlooked.

This particular album is of average quality for Hughes, which means it is better than at least 95 percent of the AOR that the AOR websites tend to like. Pick it up without hesitation if you have better taste than the typical "pro" AOR reviewer.