Rise (Guardian:Kathy Sweeney)
These days it seems you can hardly move without bumping into some eighties revival artist. The Alarm frontman is the latest to emerge from the where-are-they now? file , having disbanded the oft-derided but enduringly popular band in 1991 for a solo career that was beset with problems and illness. Now winding up his UK tour with his New Electric Band, consisting of Billy Duffy (The Cult), Craig Adams (Sisters of Mercy, The Mission,The Cult) on bass, Johnny Donnelly(Saw Doctors) on drums and James Stevenson (Gene Loves Jezebel) on guitar. You’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds like the makings of some washed-up loser-fest. However, early reports indicate that his forthcoming album, ‘Rise’, is his best solo work to date, calling to mind Neil Young and, as Peters himself says, it “lays to rest a lot of musical ghosts.”
Mike Peters Rise **** (4 out of 5) (Music Week :Editors)
“The founder member of The Alarm follows an acclaimed debut with an innovatively written and arranged album further revealing a distinctive songwriting talent.”
Rise (What’s On :Mike Davis)
Since splitting The Alarm, Peters’ career has been somewhat erratic, veering between acoustic anthems and ill-advised millenium blues techno-rock. However, in the wake of overcoming cancer, it seems the musical batteries have been recharged and focused too. Though still prone to hippy throwback lyrics bristling with energy, chorus hooks , fierce guitar (some courtesy of Billy Duffy), and emotional passion, Rise (Eagle) is indisputably his finest solo work. In the devotional ‘ You are to Me’, the title track’s lyrics, and the late Lennon balladry of the dreamy ‘Transcendental’, the Beatles references ring clear but, ‘First Light’ and ‘High on the Hill’ are ‘Creep’ era Radiohead, ‘Ground Zero’ and the ‘Wasting Land’ spread The Jam and ‘White Noise’ layers Billy Idol and Bowie over spacerock beats. Derivative sure, but definitely back on the up and up.
Rise (Maxim:Andy Robson)
If the doc had just told you you were free of cancer, you might feel justified in writing songs
celebrating every breath you take, even if the results end up so cheerily positive they virtually get
up and hug you. Peters is the former frontman of The Alarm, and his spiritual ecstacy grates
occasionally, much as the Alarm’s agit-pop won no rosettes for subtlety. But you can’t help but be
blown away on Peters’ energy, while sometime Cult man Billy Duffy adds lashings of blistering
guitar to keep the whole party rocking.
Mike Peters Rise (Daily Teleg: David Cheal)
Having knocked the Alarm on the head a few years ago, Welsh singer-songwriter Mike Peters is surging ahead with his solo career;his second album under his own name should push things along.Some of the choruses-especially on Ground Zero and Transcendental -are gloriously stirring, even if the old descending chord sequence gambit is somewhat overused, while the lyrics reflect a man seeing the world anew, so it comes as no surprise to hear that Peters has recently recovered from lymphoma. Rise will win no awards for innovation : this is straightforward guitar rock with acoustic overtones and the odd trip-hop rhythm thrown in as a nod towards modernity. But only the stoniest heart could resist being won over by an album which is so approachable and so bursting with vitality.