There have been plenty of older bands getting back their original lineup back together after a decade or two, but US melodic rock/AOR group Touch might have set the record for reunions. Their self-titled debut saw some success in the charts in 1980 and gave them spots on some prominent festivals, but after recording a follow-up in 1982 that wouldn’t officially see the light of day until many decades later, they called it quits. In 2014 keyboardist/vocalist Mark Mangold recruited a new lineup to play some Touch songs at a festival, which would eventually lead to a reunion of all four members in 2020. Forty-one years after Touch, the band now presents Tomorrow Never Comes which recaptures the pop hooks and soaring keyboards of their earlier material while exploring some other musical directions.
Where a lot of bands that fall under AOR or melodic rock tend to latch onto one element and stick with that for an entire album, Touch goes for a more diverse and varied sound that feels like a love letter to everything rock. This was true of their 1980 debut and is once again the case on Tomorrow Never Comes, as rather than simply trying to recapture that 80s sound and production they’ve tried to branch out even further. The first two songs showcase an already shifting focus, as the title track lets the keyboards soar and take the spotlight while “Let It Come” brings the guitars front and center. From there “Swan Song” stretches things out into an almost eight-minute progressive rock track, while later cuts like “Run For Your Life” go pure rock ‘n roll. Whether you’re looking for melodic rock, power pop, prog, or even some louder hard rock, Touch has a little bit of something for everyone and they do it without feeling like they’re stretching themselves too thin. Where some music of this type tends to stack its strongest riffs and melodies up front and run out of steam by the end, the fact that some of the deeper cuts stand out says a lot. There are a few flaws to Tomorrow Comes though, the first of which is that a few of the songs overstay their welcome. At over an hour some moments do drag, and there are some choruses that are repeated to the point of repetition. I’m also not crazy about the way the drums pop out of the recording, as they prove a bit distracting at points and take away from some of the softer passages.
Some reunions in the rock world have been held back by singers that have lost some of their range as they’ve aged, which I’m sure was a possible concern for existing fans of Touch since all four members contributed vocals. But they’ve returned in top form, as not only are the lead vocals top notch on every song but there are still harmonies on many of the choruses that sound huge. One of the tracks that showcases the best is the mid-tempo “Frozen Ground”, where the harmonies on the chorus explode out of your speakers with so much energy that you’d forget this band was inactive for four decades. It’s nice to see the variety extend to the singing as well, as one minute you’ll get much softer tones before getting some genuine rock ‘n roll swagger.
A few songs may overstay their welcome and there are some production quirks I’m not crazy about, but the amount of material that’s stuck with me from this album makes up for it. Tracks like “Swan Song”, “Frozen Ground”, and “Scream at the Sky” are likely to be in my queue for some time, and this is one of the better melodic rock/AOR releases I’ve heard in 2021. I don’t know that it quite stacks up to their debut (and after this long, maybe those are impossible standards), but for Touch to come back after this long and still be this strong is something to be celebrated. Tomorrow Never Comes is available from Deko Entertainment and Escape Music.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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