[The following is feedback we received from our friend Paul Foley of the Australian band Brainstorm]
Dear Tim,
First couple of listens were enough. You've done it. Nailed it. Best thing I've heard for years. In retrospect, probably something you've been artistically working - probably more correct to say "evolving" - towards for decades. Ticks all the boxes. Works on multiple levels, the songs, performance, engineering and production, lyrical and musical themes and development, arty and gutsy at the same time. Not just brilliant, but effortlessly, masterfully so. Not just "indie good", but mainstream crossover good, millionaire good, like PJ Harvey's Let England Shake was at the time. Well done! You should do some serious promo work with this one, call in some old DJ friend favours, have a major launch and do a promo tour; it's the sort of thing that people will want to play over and over for days, and should get picked up by the big networks. It's "first listen" brilliant, which is the key I think to getting major airplay and exposure. On one hearing, you immediately want to play it again. This was so evident that I found myself repeating tracks over and over even on first listen, wanting to hear them again before even hearing the whole album. Is there anyone doing a video for it?
Thanks for sending this album. You've raised the bloody bar again. Damn. Back to the drawing board for everyone else.
Congratulations indeed! Also to Terri, John Simms and anyone else who helped that I don't know well enough to mention. I've already dug out my Clear Blue Sky albums for another rotation in the car. I'll get back to you when I've played this disk another 20 or 30 times, probably within a few days.
Best wishes, Paul.