The album, “We’ve All Been There”, doesn’t start out very strong. The title track is fairly decent but not quite memorable and What Is Love is a collection of clichés and sounds very much like all the other songs out there. But then there’s the lead single Tonight. The song is written very well and performed with feeling and edginess. It’s the Alex Band that you want to hear. Good build up, enough tension in the song to make this a stellar power ballad/anthem. Radio’s gonna embrace this one for sure.
Forever Yours is a decent track, nothing wrong with it, but not one of the album’s highlights. The following two tracks however (Please, Will Not Back Down) are strong songs. Especially Please is a strong effort. The emotion in the vocals and the subtle arrangement of the song show Alex Band’s maturity in songwriting and performing. Euphoria is another song that deserves praise. Listen to those vocal skills, excellent control, and while with some artists parts of the lyrics might become cheesy, Band delivers the song with sincerity and feeling and therefore the lyrics are inspiring instead of cheesy. This is the way it’s supposed to be done.
There are a few songs that are good album songs, but that you can’t really rank among the stand out tracks (Never Let You Go, Only One). There really isn’t much wrong with these songs, but they miss that little thing that makes a good song great. Take Start Over Again for example. It’s a paced down, mainly acoustic song but it shows a singer that bares his soul in a song. The arrangement is perfect for the nature of the song and it is definitely one of the album’s most impressive tracks.
“We’ve All Been There” is a strong album with a number of really good songs. Fans of mainstream pop/rock should not doubt to purchase this album, because it will be right up their alley. Fans of The Calling won’t be disappointed as Band doesn’t stray too far, but at times he gets a little more creative and shows a little more variety, which shows he’s matured even more as a songwriter. The album may not be consistent all the time, but it’s his first solo release, so that’s to be expected. Band’s still finding his way, but there’s a more than solid basis to say that this musician has what it takes to reach similar success on his own as he did with his previous band.