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So U by Neal Schon featuring Mendoza and Castronovo (Frontiers Records 2014)

Solo album from Journey guitar hero launches a new power trio

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Lineup:
Neal Schon - Guitar, Vocals
Marco Mendoza - Bass, Vocals
Deen Castronovo - Drums, Vocals

Track Listing (songwriting credits from Allmusic):
1. Take a Ride (Marco Mendoza/ Neal Schon) 5:23
2. So U (Jack Blades/ Neal Schon) 9:28
3. Exotica (Neal Schon) 5:32
4. What You Want (Jack Blades/ Neal Schon) 5:08
5. Love Finds a Way (Jack Blades/ Deen Castronovo/ Neal Schon) 5:46
6. On My Way (Jack Blades/ Neal Schon) 3:53
7. Serenity (Jack Blades/ Neal Schon) 3:58
8. Shelter (Jack Blades/ Neal Schon) 6:05
9. Big Ocean (Neal Schon) 4:40

Although ostensibly a Neal Schon solo album, So U is really a band effort with the ubiquitous Marco Mendoza (currently a member of Black Star Riders) on bass and vocals and long-term collaborator Deen Castronovo (Journey, Bad English and GZR) on drums and vocals. Schon's guitar playing sparkles throughout as you would expect and he handles some of the vocals capably, but Mendoza and Castronovo's contributions are unexpectedly strong. With its mixture of hard rock and Santana-like jazzrock instrumentals, the album has stood out for me among various new and reissued albums by 'classic rock' bands in the first half of this year. It is also an album which stands repeated plays.

Opener Take a Ride, featuring the gravelly voice of Marco Mendoza, sounds like ZZ Top with a touch of Joe walsh and is unremarkable. After a soulful introduction also sung by Mendoza, the title track becomes a lengthy piece of psychedelia, with John Lennon-style vocals from Schon. Deen Castronovo provides some dynamic drumming in the manner of Ringo Starr on Tomorrow Never Knows, the ending is a spoken word passage recalling Traffic's Hole in My Shoe and Schon's guitar sounds like mid-seventies Steve Hillage. Personally, I could do without the modern trend for psychedelia, but will make an exception for So U as it is surprisingly effective. According to a recent interview, most of the songs on the album were co-written by Schon with Jack Blades during shared 'down time' and the former Nightranger additionally provides backing vocals.

Schon revisits his Santana, early Journey or Abraxas Pool style for Exotica, a terrific jazzrock instrumental. With the guitarist supposedly working on the Santana IV album with Carlos Santana, it adds to the frustration of the latter persisting with his pop-rock collaborations. What You Want has multi-part harmonies and an insistent riff borrowed from The Eagles' Life in the Fast Lane, but it is heavier. The band approach eighties Journey territory with Deen Castrono taking lead vocals and giving a convincing impression of Steve Perry on Love Finds a Way. It is Castronovo who is the revelation on this album, for his spectacular singing as well as his busy drumming, and it shows he should have succeeded Perry as lead vocalist with Journey.

On My Way is more southern rock with vocals from Marco Mendoza. The standout track on So U is Serenity, where Castronovo really soars like Steve Perry. I love the way he screams 'serenity' in a way that is not serene at all. Castronovo and Mendoza maintain the increase in pace when they share lead vocals on the frantic Shelter, with equally rapid guitar work from Neal Schon. The album closes with another Santana-like jazzrock instrumental, Big Ocean, this time slower and with more guitar playing in the style of Steve Hillage or Glenn Phillips.

So U may not be a great album, but it is head and shoulders above most of the modern dross released by rock bands in the last few years. Hopefully, this lineup will remain together long enough to make an even stronger album or possibly a truly great album.


Further Reading
1. Amazon has a review by Michael A. Greenberg which details the roles of the singers on each track:
2. Vintage Rock' review including interesting comments on What You Want: Neal Schön | So U - CD Review
3. Get Ready to Rock's unusuallty negative review: Album review : NEAL SCHON - So U - Get Ready to ROCK! Reviews | Interviews | BlogGet Ready to ROCK! Reviews | Interviews | Blog
4. Interview with Neal Schon on the collaboration with Jack Blades, from The Huffington Post: <i>So U</i> and More: Conversations with Neal Schon, Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Edgar Winter | Mike Ragogna