With all of the re-uploading, re-downloading, re-organizing and re-decorating that I've been doing since the 'Megaupload meltdown' (as I call it these days), I figured I may as well wipe the slate completely clean on a few old posts and start over from scratch. The online "Music Spectrum" edition of "Extreme Makeover", I'd like to think of it as. First up in this short renovation project is "Piece Of Paradise", the terrific debut album by the Canadian band that went through some renovations of its own—SKY. Those renovations, mainly, consisted of the revolving door of lead singers, which started with James Renald on this album before a lady named Anastasia took over on "Travelling Infinity", then Karl Wolf on "Picture Perfect" thereafter. Turns out that I really did only have a piece of SKY's paradise when I originally got what I recently learned was a copy of the U.S. version and not the reworked Canadian version, which contains the two extra tracks called "Powder" and "Dreamin'". Then it had dawned on me that the sound quality of those songs on my version hadn't the greatest either. So, taking both of these revelations into account, I went out and got this Canadian version of "Piece Of Paradise" so that I could finally enjoy it the way I should have when I'd featured it during the early days of "The Music Nexus: Reloaded". At first, I was only going to check out the two new songs and my old favorites, but in situations like this, I thought it would be best to play the whole album from start to finish, leaving nothing out. Different track arrangement here than on the U.S. version, where SKY's most famous hit, "Love Song", opens things up; this time, "Push" is the opening song. Either way, you'd be presented with a great song, and for the former, I've included the same instrumental that I included in my original "Music Nexus" upload. The song I loved the most was (and still is) "Shave". This is one that needs an instrumental for it because the beat is so awesome! I immediately remembered to add it to my 'Feelgood Mix' when I played it again. It's a little longer than the U.S. version, thanks to an extended instrumental interlude inserted before the familiar blaring guitar interlude that I know so well. They could've made this one as long as they wanted to make it; would've been perfectly fine with me. "Some Kinda Wonderful" is still indeed some kinda wonderful (I couldn't help but to think about the BLOW MONKEYS song by the same name). Added this one to the mix, too, because the bouncy guitar beat always make me feel like gettin' up and movin' something. Another hit that I love tremendously: "America". Again, the beat and the mellow sound just makes me feel good all inside, and the lyrics are really cool, too. 'And it's from some place they call America' is one of the best hooks on this album and one that you can't help but to whistle to or sing along with. A truly beautiful song I may have missed before, but certainly not today, is "All I Want" which, if you listen closely, begins with almost the same sunny woodwind instrumental as the one that opens up THE BANGLES radio classic, "Eternal Flame". May have missed out on enjoying "Last Time I Saw You" too, but like all of these other songs, it sounded so much better this time around. Wish all of these songs could've had instrumentals; SKY's sound is just so great that I can just groove to the instrumentals without the added vocals. And that's something else new I had discovered, speaking of the vocals. While I was reading the production credits for this album on Discogs, I read that John Acosta, who was one half of the pop duo ACOSTA RUSSELL, did backing vocals to eight of these songs while Dan Metreyeon, who was one half of the short-lived boyband called REACT, did the backing vocals to "Last Time I Saw You". It's another amazing example of how this crazy world of music operates. You never know who's been linked to who, and when you trace all the dots, you've drawn the startling connection. I guess those two guys wanted their own piece of SKY's paradise as well:
1. Push
2. You And I
3. Shave
4. Some Kinda Wonderful
5. I Will Survive
6. America
7. Powder
8. Love Song
9. All I Want
10. Last Time I Saw You
11. Strange
12. Dreamin'
*****BONUS TRACK*****
13. Love Song [Instrumental]
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