Love Parade

Love Parade is Jeff Scott Soto's first solo album, binding funk, pop and hard rock into something distinct from his work in Talisman. After a decade singing for other people — he made his name on Yngwie Malmsteen's first two records — this was the first album he made for himself, in 1994. Heard in the context of its time, it isn't merely a way station: it lets you check his habits of riff, vocal and arrangement from a different angle. Rather than being caught by the obvious highlights, following the sonic center of gravity, the placement of the choruses and the flow between songs reveals the album's face as a whole. Following the opener “A New Salvation,” the mood-shifting “United / Divided,” and the late “Funk Sandwich” makes each song's role and temperature easy to see. A cover of Queen's “Dragon Attack” closes the record — an early hint of the connection that would later see him perform with Brian May. His son Jason appears on the cover. Even when a record gets discussed less than the career's big works, choices that lead to what comes next are inscribed in it. Later reissued after Frontiers acquired the rights — an important album for filling in the shape of the whole discography.