Review Summary: Female fronted Album of the year 2010
The new Marya Roxx album "Payback Time" seriously rocks!!!
First of all let me tell you that in my opinion it is the best hardrock album of 2010. If you ask why, well finally it's an album where all of the songs and not just a few really kick ass. Sure some songs are slightly better or worse than others but i love them all and many of them became real earcatchers after listening to the album several times.
The opener "Time To Run" is a powerful hit right into your face and besides the titletrack "Payback Time" and "Loverboy" my favorite tune. There's no need to talk about each single song as all of them are strong, wellwritten and have the typical Marya Roxx flavor. It's first class hardrock with a touch of punk and metal and if you like female fronted rock you should like this one.
The production is amazingly good (what else would you expect from Kevin Shirley who also produced the likes of Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Dream Theater, etc.). Marya's voice is an excellent mix of aggression and power and it's not a bit weaker recorded than you can experience live. It's no surprise she won several songcontests in her homecountry Estonia and for all who don't know, Estonia is the country of singers just as the USA are wellknown for Hollywood and Coca Cola or France for its famous cuisine that's singing in Estonia and if you already won several national singing-contests there it's needless to argue about this professional voice.
Continuing with the songwriting, it's rather simple but nevertheless the highlight of the album. Bands like AC/DC, Bon Jovi or KISS never been famous as being technical masterminds but their songs are legend and they are creative artists with the right feeling for hits and anthems and the same goes for Marya Roxx. Some might think too many songs on Marya's album sound alike (specially when hearing them for the first time) but hey, that's her trademark and i never heard anybody say that it's boring to listen to a complete AC/DC record eventhough their songs are even more similar.
Another personal highlight that should get mentioned is the brilliant guitarwork of Paul Crook (Meat Loaf, Anthrax, etc.) and it's one more reason why "Payback Time" is the album that i listened to more often than any other album in the past few years.
It's hard to describe the quality of the album in words, let your ears be the judge and if you like Marya's style that album gets really addictive. And to find out if you like it simply check it out. It doesn't even matter which songs you pick, it won't take long to find out if it's a pleasure for you ears just like it was to mine :-)
