Stan Bush
In This Life

May 2007
Released: 2007, Frontiers Records/Zink Music
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

The melodic rock legend Stan Bush is back with a brand new album entitled IN THIS LIFE. This is Bush’s tenth album and if you’re into melodic rock you’re probably familiar with Bush’s earlier work. If you want to read more about Bush’s previous album then check out the main page, where SHINE is reviewed. Bush gives us an album that’s well-played and has a lot of really edgy guitar parts. Bush has a brilliant voice that’s still strong and that really fits this kind of music.

11 tracks are included this time around and the lyrics are, as always, about love, love, and more love. One thing that speaks against the album is the amount of ballads. Three up-tempo ballads and two straight ballads are included and that’s far too many in my opinion. Killer tracks are the faster songs that have an edgier twist like “I’ll Never Fall”, “This Moment”, “Long, Long Way”, “Take It All the Way”, and “In This Life”. In some of the songs the music style borders on light melodic hard rock, which is a positive thing. The album feels solid and has a lot of high-quality material as well as some very catchy choruses. It wouldn’t hurt Bush to try some new stuff like losing the ballads and writing about something other than love all the time. IN THIS LIFE is produced by guitarist Holger Fath and he’s done a great but standard production with nothing out of the ordinary, just a solid production.

This is what you would expect from Stan Bush. It’s a good album and you know you can trust Bush when it comes to soothing ballads and edgier rock riffs. It’s fun to hear that Bush has driven up the tempo a notch and that he isn’t afraid to take on heavier guitar playing. IN THIS LIFE is a melodic rock album of high-class, and in the bio Bush says that he’s about to embark on tour, so stay tuned for that.