Letter to God

Letter to God is the third album, arriving twelve years after 1991's Hungry. Whether to call it a band record, though, its author has answered himself: Terry Ilous later said it was honestly closer to a solo album, and that it let him express himself during a period that was very difficult both personally and professionally. Patt Fontaine is not on it. JK Northrup plays guitar, Sean McNabb — formerly of Quiet Riot — plays bass, and Paul Monroe returns on drums. Vinny Appice drums on the title track and Nir Averbuch adds keyboards. With no label behind it, the sound is unpolished — and the roughness suits it. The opener “What's on Your Mind” is unmistakably an XYZ song, and the title track that follows turns the pain of losing two people close to him straight into music. The ballad “Deny,” the soaring “Touch the Sky” and “Tango,” and the shadowed “Rainy Day” line up before 2003 versions of “Inside Out” and “What Keeps Me Loving You” close things out. Only the voice is stronger than it was twelve years earlier. Hear it as the record of a man carrying loss.