Pieces might be concidered a nice album for anyone who hasn’t been out of their house for let’s say fifteen years. The album is filled with melodic rock songs that would have done nicely in the eighties. I seriously doubt however if there are people out there who are waiting for an album like this. Sam Alex and his co-writer Bobby Altvater remind a bit of Robbie Valentine and Steve Vay (both men of the eigthies), so does their music. The cover says it all. Even Sam Alex’s website (I’m actually surprised that he has one) seems to be from the stone age.

But hey, there must be a market for these releases. Listening to the album objectively (as far as this is possible) I must admit that there are some nice songs and catchy melodies on it. Sadly all of them sound so familiar, so old fashioned, so cliche. On the positive side there’s not much wrong with the sound on the album which is thoroughly produced. The album also features a couple of covers, amoung which a Robbie Valentine, Alphaville and Ultravox track.