THE FOLLOWING IS A BRAND NEW REVIEW OF THE ALBUM BY OVERPLAY.COM

According to his bio, Liverpool’s Tony Reid once auditioned for Atomic Kitten. There may have been drink involved, but as the twelve songs on ‘In An Unknown Hemisphere’ demonstrate, it would have been hard for him to pull off shimmying around in a boob tube singing “Whole Again”. Instead, it’s clear that his true forte is in assembling sleek, sophisticated rock music. Through stories of love, loss, redemption and woodland creatures, his is a voice that rumbles with conviction like Chris Cornell or Free’s Paul Rodgers. With all the power and grace of a prize fighter, this is a confident, grown-up sound that leaves you in no doubt that he means every word. Broadly, the lp is divided between muscular, schmaltz-free ballads and a variety of edgy mid-paced poppers. In the latter camp, “Blood In The Water” crackles with twanging Dick Dale energy like Chris Isaak’s “Blue Hotel” on steroids and “Ounce Of Faith” is an energetic New Wave hustle in the shape of early Elvis Costello. “Black Beaches” also packs a punch, while “These Four Walls” throws in a subtle jazz inflection and a lighter touch to accommodate some nimble poetry (“I feel like a lion without any prey”, sings Tony). From the electrified folk of ”Heavy Metal”, the Led Zep-lite of “Fairytale” and the Soundgarden muscle of “Dog Day”, it’s clear that Tony approaches ballads in their broadest sense. “Take Your Number” adds bloopy effects and beats for a moment of urbanity; but the skyscraping trio of “Tell Me”, “You’d better Run” and “How Many Times” could offer out Embrace for the chance to go in the dictionary as the definition of ”‘sweeping”. Unlike the Bradford contingent, however, Tony is careful, by and large, to tone down the sentimentality. The latter tune, uplifting as it is, still asks the question, “How many times can a good man wake before he takes to cutting throats?” Still, isn’t it time we had a few more singer/songwriters with this much attitude?
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