An initial snapshot of John Taglieri’s sound places him squarely in the Michael Morales bracket, and his vocals are at times a dead ringer to Jon Bon Jovi.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: John Taglieri
ALBUM: Leap Of Faith
LABEL: Leapdog Music
SERIAL: LDP9901
YEAR: 1999
SPONSOR: John Taglieri
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: John Taglieri – all vocals, all instruments
TRACK LISTING: 01 Leap Of Faith * 02 Shangri-La * 03 Reason To Believe * 04 First Night * 05 I Found You * 06 The Two Sides Of Love * 07 Can’t You See * 08 One More Tomorrow * 09 High Road * 10 Hold Me Close Tonight * 11 Need To Hear * 12 Here Without You
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
A bright light emerges on the melodic rock scene in the shape and form of New Jersey resident John Taglieri. He hails from East Rutherford, just up on the western side of the Hudson River. John’s name and profile is well known among Internet Netizens and his indie effort ‘Leap Of Faith’ is as strong a release as you’ll see compared to anything coming out of the major production houses. In fact, in some ways, it’s better.
And you wanna know why? Sheer talent. John’s musical pedigree and background enable him to understand both the technical and business aspects of producing music, and his love of all things melodic has bought him to where he is today. As you can see, the man plays nearly everything, and John’s songs were evident on MP3.COM where punters got a first look at him.
An initial snapshot of John’s sound places him squarely in the Michael Morales bracket, and his vocals are at times a dead ringer to another New Jersey favourite son Jon Bongiovi (yes, let’s spell his name correctly why don’t we). In the main, it’s aggressive guitar-based melodic rock, catchy on some cuts while radio friendly on the other hand.
The Songs
The album opens up with the title track ‘Leap Of Faith’ and I don’t whether it’s the name or the chorus but I kept singing Bon Jovi‘s ‘Keep The Faith’. I’m sorry about that John, but hey, you’re in good company now.
Next up is ‘Shangri-La’ which is a superb track, effortlessly hummable and you’ve just got to love that chorus. Another upbeat and poppy affair is ‘I Found You’ while the hard rocking efforts of ‘The Two Sides Of Love’ and ‘High Road’ are not too far off that classic sound put out by Michael O’Brien (reviewed elsewhere on this site).
There are a number of quieter tracks throughout, providing a foil to the harder material. Songs like the acoustic guitar based ‘First Night’, the predominant piano lacings on ‘Can You See’ as well as the rather cute duet ‘One More Tomorrow’ sung in tandem with John’s wife Michelle.
In Summary
As there are so many diverse styles on the album it demonstrates John’s obvious talent, and showcases this to maximum effect. Personally I loved the rockier songs as I feel John has a natural affinity with them. Perhaps for album #2 we can see a particular focus in that area, because some of the material is killer. The groundwork has now been laid for a serious contender to enter the melodic rock arena. Let us hope John Taglieri can continue onwards and upwards.
