TAO - 'Prophecy'

Gary Hughes from Ten has written a lot of songs for other people, including Sir Bob Catley, but he’s not written too many songs for the female voice in the past. But when lockdown strikes and you have a home studio and a girlfriend who’s a splendid singer, you might as well channel your talents into creating an AOR / melodic rock album for her. The lady in question is Karen Fell. She’s been singing professionally for some time and lives with Gary in North West England but, like me, she is originally from South Edinburgh. Add in Chris Gould (guitar), David Rosingana (bass) and a few old friends and you have a new outfit called TAO.

The classy opening track, “Nobody but You” features prominent use of a Talk-Box vocoder ‘Living on a Prayer’ style. It also shows off Karen’s vocals nicely as she delivers a sultry paean to her man with lines like ‘no other lover compares‘ and ‘can’t wait to get it on‘. It’s the first time I’ve thought of the dynamic where someone (Gary) has written lyrics for his partner to sing, apparently about the love of her life (presumably Gary again). Maybe not, maybe Karen is playing a part or was thinking about David Coverdale when she was singing, but then again, it’s as well they weren’t having a row at the time or it could have all gone a bit Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues. That said, there’s also a very tidy ballad entitled “Might Just Break Your Heart” so it’s probably all just good song-writing and character acting.

The absolute highlight for me is a mini-epic called “Angels and Clandestine Fools” which also earns a reprise. In this, I picked up a hint of Robin Beck in Karen’s voice for the first time and it features a classy arrangement and a short but incisive guitar solo. There’s also a bit of a Roxette influence evident on the more electronic “Breathe In, Breathe Out”. Another stand-out track is “Nazarene” - a very memorable tune and style-wise it could almost fit in with a modern revamp of the ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ soundtrack.

There’s not that many female-fronted melodic rock bands active in the UK just now so it will be interesting to see if TAO will develop into a live band with multiple recordings. There’s definitely always a space for a band of this quality on the scene.