Coming off the back of the 3 Lions debut album earlier this year is the debut solo release from the band’s frontman and bassist Nigel Bailey.
Nigel sings (obviously) as well as playing Bass and Guitars, with Alessandro Del Vecchio producing/mixing and contributing keyboards, with fellow Italians Alessandro Mori on Drums and Mario Percudani on Guitars.
So this is a little different than the bluesier/melodic rock of 3 Lions. Long Way Down is a touch heavier and more direct in nature – earthy in nature, heavier and featuring some straight forward songs and a decent heavy guitar driven sound and a strong production.
There’s some heavier numbers like the 6 minute hard rock of In The Name Of The King; the title track Long Way Down; and the album closing, bluesy rocker Dirty Angel.
Horns appear on the uptempo Bad Reputation to mix things up a little.
More melodic tracks that could have fit 3 Lions include the best track of the album, Dirty Little Secret; the very "British" Stay and the uptempo Love Falls Down.
It’s a pretty long album, but remains fairly consistent. A little editing on the song lengths might have helped. I do think it tends to get stuck in a very similar tempo throughout. A few tracks drag a little (like Somewhere In Oslo) and I’m not sure that the material is as memorable as 3 Lions, plus the limited range, Gary Hughes styled vocals of Nigel Bailey can appear to lack variety.
But, those things said, this is a strong debut which makes a statement that Mr. Bailey is set to hang around for a while to come and the production of Alessandro Del Vecchio goes from strength to strength.
