Stephen What keeps me amazed is how creative this Chicago legend can be. One album almost every year and each album consisted of 20 tracks, not the usual 12 or 14 tracks, and almost no fillers at all, that should count for something, don't you think ?

Still combining the typical modern melodic rock, bridging between the 80s hard rock and some poppish element making 7TH HEAVEN accessible to any generation. 'Spectrum' is a very strong continuation project and probably on par with the great 'USA - UK' album of 2008.

My fave here and I bet the crowd's fave too are 'Stoplight', 'It's You', 'Once In A Lifetime', 'We Live Life Young' which I think is the best cut of this album, and 'Heads or Tails'. The twenty tracks are constructed with a good variety, you'll get everything from the uptempo, catchy mid-paced, the heartfelt ballads, and even some dancey track like 'Magic' or reggae-fused 'Join The Party'.

Production-wise is also quite good and with Keith Semple back on board, that’s a very neat thing because his voice really fits the band’s style. All I can say is that 7TH HEAVEN is a consistent band with a consistently great album. I hope the next one will be as strong as 'Spectrum' because making great album like this one sure not an easy task. Good job!

Stephen As far as I can tell, I'm pleased with this album and they manage to bring it a step higher than the previous effort, 'Pop Media', although still two steps behind the great 'USA/UK' of 2008. The new singer, Anthony Fedorov, fits very well here, he did a nice job, and the strength of this band is to create such an irresistible catchy rock tracks especially when you crank up the opening, 'We Live Life Young', what an amazing song and melody, this is definitely the best track of the album!

Second best should go to 'Take My Heart (Do It All Again)' and third place was rewarded to the eleventh track, 'I'll Be Waiting' - a very nice mid-tempo tune with a perfect chorus. Other great songs like 'Pages', Power of Love', and 'Live On' worth checking out, and the rest actually are good too, except for couple of weaker songs like 'I Begin Again' or 'Why Ya Gotta Be Like That', ain't bad at all but need some push-push in the chorus department.

Production is pretty good, very strong musicianship, and although I'm afraid the replay value fall a bit because some part of this sounds quite samey and too formulaic for some, but of course, why fix if it ain’t broke?. Good thing is they seem to move forward to the right road and sadly I recently found out that the relation of the band with Anthony didn’t last and hopefully the next album will be even better with an even better singer.

Stephen 7th Heaven is either too creative or too generous, but it seems every new package they have is always abundant of song numbers. After the record-breaking of almost 300 songs on their 15-discs boxset, 'Jukebox' and also 18 songs on their previous 'USA/UK' record back in 2008, now they're back again with a full set of 21 songs, very convincing return with no shortage of ideas to keep pumping the songs out.

No significant change to the formation, 7th Heaven brings a solid melodic hard rock with a modern power pop touch and of course still referencing to the 80s decade as the solid ground of their musical foundation. The usual too-many-songs problem is you'll find it hard to separate which track is which and if you don't pay a full attention to each songs, you'll get mixed up easily, especially when all the tempo and songwriting style are very similar.

If you carefully pick the strongest tracks, I think there are at least 9-10 excellent songs or almost half the album, while the rest are spread between fillers and good tracks. Among those big numbers are 'Sing' and 'Snapshots In Time At The Speed of Light', a cross of Savage Garden and late-80s Def Leppard; 'Go For A Ride' and 'Dance of A Lifetime' with a hint of groovy shaky rhythm and wonderful chorus; 'She Should Have Been An Angel', 'Animals', 'Photographs', 'Should I Stay', and 'Living In A Mystery' are another fave tracks of mine.

I still consider 'USA/UK' as a better release, but 'Pop Media' won't disappoint the old fans, in fact, 7th Heaven is one of the most consistent band that keep delivering what their fans really wanted and hoped. Best of luck to the band and it's always good to see a band stays true to what they're good at.

Stephen 7th Heaven is perhaps one of the most successful indie bands America ever made. If you live around Illinois, this brand should be very familiar, since their first day in 1985, they've been consistently performing live with an average 200 shows each year and written over 500 songs throughout their career. The unusual album's title of "USA/UK" came from the merge of Irish singer, Keith Semple, and the original American band, led by Richie Hofherr as the band's mastermind.

Eighteen tracks for a single album is looking a bit too much, unless they're a grindcore act, but if you're afraid they stuffed the record with fillers, then you're wrong. 7th Heaven seems doesn't know how to make any bad songs at all, in fact, from the opening track, "Better This Way", all the way to the bottom, "While You Dream", are fully enjoyable, and not many bands that can cleverly put out a flexible arrangement that will please the father and the daughter at the same time. Musically, this is like a mix of Def Leppard's "Adrenalize" era with Savage Garden's "Affirmation", so you'll encounter the catchy hooks, big harmony vocals, killer melodies, and poppish flair, all mixed gently in one bowl, at the same time.

Semple has a truly wonderful voice, he's like Joe Elliot meets Bryan Adams, with an occasional touch of Darren Hayes. There are at least six old tracks from the double-album, "Silver", that was re-recorded with Semple's vocal, and most of them are nicely done, "Cellophane", "Kill The Cycle", and "Ghost of Me" are examples of the particular higlights. In my opinion, focusing on strongest tracks and try squeezing this album down to 11-12 tracks are better to let the listeners undistracted by the quantity hence automatically emphasized the quality. Leaving out "Still Be Here", "Gravity", "Electronic Karma", or "Winning It All" for another album or compilation are acceptable, but brilliant tracks such as "Better This Way", "Gave You My Word", "Save Your Life", or "Tragedy" are essential.

A very good album for melodic fans and if you take your kids out to their concert, guaranteed some words such as "Dad, they're cool!" will come out as soon as it's over. They deserved the world's attention and if only a major label will promote them out, selling millions of this is only a matter of time.