Eyes – Windows Of The Soul

From what I’ve read since about ‘Windows Of The Soul’, the material of this album was recorded before that of the 1990 ‘Eyes’ album, which is interesting to me.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Eyes
ALBUM: Windows Of The Soul
LABEL: Brilliant (Sweden)
SERIAL: BCD 1003
YEAR: 1993
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Jeff Scott Soto – lead, backing vocals * Aldy Damien – drums, backing vocals * Steve Dougherty – guitars, backing vocals

TRACK LISTING: 01 Cheyenne * 02 City Nights * 03 Love Is Alive * 04 Way Back Home * 05 Living On The Edge * 06 Love Lies * 07 Don’t Turn Around * 08 Walking Fire * 09 Nobody Said It Was Easy * 10 It’s All Over

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

This L.A based band had been around the scene, years before their 1990 official debut. Eyes had also seen a revolving turnstile of musicians pass through their ranks, but the core always seemed to be Aldy Damian, and Steve Dougherty. Singer Jeff Soto had been involved with the band Panther, Dougherty with L.A pop rockers Burning Rome, so there is a track record.

From what I’ve read since about ‘Windows Of The Soul’, the material of this album was recorded before that of the 1990 ‘Eyes’ album, which is interesting to me. There is a musical difference between the music here (very AOR oriented) and the debut ‘Eyes’ (melodic hard rock), and to my ears, the production here is not as strong, even if the songs are marginally better.

The Songs

It’s a given that the first two tracks make for essential listening. Both ‘Cheyenne’ and ‘City Nights’ are two of the best tracks from the Eyes back-catalogue, sending AOR fanatics into fits of joy. The musical equivalent of catnip. ‘Love Is Alive’ is a very captivating version of the Gary Wright 70’s classic, given a hard rock makeover.

Keeping up AOR appearances is the lovely ‘Way Back Home’, while ‘Living On The Edge’ takes things to an even higher level. It’s ballad time thanks to ‘Love Lies’, though it does toughen up during its playing time. The next three tracks were all found on the ‘Eyes’ CD; ‘Don’t Turn Around’, ‘Walking Fire’ and ‘Nobody Said It Was Easy’, so I won’t wrote about those having covered them previously. The tenth and final track ‘It’s All Over’ is a harder edged affair, and riffs away harmoniously, adding to what is already a great album.

In Summary

‘Windows Of The Soul’ was first officially released in Sweden by the small label Brilliant Records. Additional labels reissued it the following year, including Bulletproof Records out of England, and Zero Corp out of Japan. The infamous Time Warp Records out of Las Vegas Nevada also reissued it as a bootleg in 2009. Jeff Scott Soto did not appear on 1994’s ‘Full Moon’ demos release as he was (by this stage) heavily involved with his band Talisman. Eyes are a good band overall, pick up everything you can by them.

Eyes on Video

Cheyenne