Looking through Stan's CV is a mighty impressive experience. He's co-written with Journey's Jonathan Cain, top songsmith Jim Vallance and starchild Paul Stanley. House of Lords covered his 'Love Don't Lie' and Bush co-wrote Quiet Riot's 'Slave To Love' with the band. Stan won an Emmy with 'Til I Was Loved By You' and 'Capture The World' was featured in the 1996 Olympic Games. And, lending from The Stig for a moment, it's said that he has sung backing vocals on albums by Alice Cooper and Jefferson Starship although just which ones remains unclear.

But it's the Transformers fans who should be most excited. For them Stan Bush's name is surely up there with the illustrious Megatron, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. For it was Bush that recorded the songs 'Dare' and 'The Touch' from the original 1986 film - not that 2007 unconvincing CGI debacle. Although recently Stan has revisted Cybertron releasing a 2007 version of 'The Touch' for Guitar Hero and his 'Til All Are One' turned up on the end credits to the Transformers 2010 video game. To top it off he's vocalised on commercials for major car companies and beer makers.

Maybe it's Bush's talent for writing a catchy tune and getting into our subconscious that's his downfall. He does it so stealthily that you don't even notice it happening. It's a given with AOR that it be catchy and be sung by a top-notch vocalist. It's what's beyond this "given" that I'm always on the look out for. And here I'm struggling to find it. The album is like a kind of musical anaesthetic. It's pleasant, it gets you high but in the end it's all a bit of a blur. You could be listening to this in the car and forget than you've already put in a CD to listen to and end up breaking your stereo by trying to force another CD into the slot.

Accompanying Bush on this, his 13th record is drummer Matt Laug who can be found on Slash's 'Ain't Life Grand', Matt Bissonette long-term Joe Satriani bassman and tying up the loose ends is Holger Fath who provides the guitars, keyboards and production. As such it's expertly produced and played. Bush sounds closest to Lou Gramm in vocal style but his lyrical subject matter widely diverges from Foreigner and is widely rooted in the imaginary aspirational world of Hell-Yeah America and its gung-ho movies. The songs are full of strength, fire, dreams, miracles, power, the will to win, eagles and angels - great if that pumps you up ready to take on the world but I think that I'll stick with an extra-strong coffee with a dash of gone-off milk to instigate my daily spiritual awakening.

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