Continuing with with John Sykes albums, now it’s time for his band SYKES second effort, 1997’s “20th Century“. While this is the first of the Sykes albums released in America, it was a limited distribution and many people still haven’t heard this album yet. As previous Sykes music, “20th Century” is an entirely Mercury Records Japan production.
The record is a companion piece to John Sykes’ album ”Loveland”, released that same year. As ‘Loveland’ was entirely composed of ballads and marketed as a ‘John Sykes solo’ album, ”20th Century” is a SYKES-the band hard rock disc.
According to Sykes, the goal with “20th Century” was also to have shorter and more “concise” songs, in a classic hard rock tradition. With friend Marco Mendoza again on monster bass, and talented Simon Phillips on drums, ”20th Century” is an all out hard rock affair.
There are truck loads of Thin Lizzy influences throughout the record. Just listen to opener “Look In His Eyes”, a hard-hitter with strong melody and lyrics. The guitar work is insane. At the end of the guitar solo, listen how Sykes uses his control of pinch harmonics to make his guitar sound like a siren. On a side note, Sykes was doing pinch harmonics with wide vibrato way before Zakk Wylde made it his trademark…
“System Ain’t Working”, “2 Counts” (tons of groove) “Defcon 1” and the standout “Cautionary Warning” are huge tracks, punchy, driving. This album rocks hard, with short songs > to the point.
”20th Century” is a powerhouse collection of timeless hooky riffs / songs, smoking solos with a great tone, and that vibrato, wider than a four-lane highway… what’s not to love?
Highly Recommended
01 – Look In His Eyes
02 – 20th Century Heartache
03 – I Get Around
04 – 2 Counts
05 – Defcon 1
06 – System Ain’t Workin’
07 – The Way You Kiss Me
08 – Found What I Needed
09 – Cautionary Warning
10 – Touched By Evil
John Sykes – guitars, vocals, bass on 4
Marco Mendoza – bass
Simon Phillips – drums
Tommy O’Steen – drums on 4
Tommy Aldridge – drums on 1
Bonnie Bonapart – drums on 6, 8
Mars Lasar – keyboards