'Streets Of Chance' is the Tony Mills album I was hoping for, a return to Melodic Rock and big choruses.

I first saw Tony Mills singing in Shy in 1986, thirty years later we're quite friendly and I'm in the position to be the first person to review his seventh solo album, having enjoying the darker tones of his last release 'Over My Dead Body'. This time around, he's enlisted several talented people to help out and the result is an uplifting album that's hard to stop playing.

Straight away, the tone of the album is set down with the bounce and catchiness of 'Scars', and, as usual, it's a treat to hear Mills' high, powerful vocals on a straightforward AOR track. This is Melodic Rock, no doubts about it, and one of two tracks penned by Robby Boebel. It's one of the highlights of the album, along with the Eric Ragno/Paul Sabu-penned 'Battleground' (which was tweaked by Pete Newdeck and given some pace) and 'When We Were Young' from Vega brothers – Tom and James Martin. From these three songs you can tell that the quality of song-writing guests is high indeed and it really shows throughout. The feel of the album is often very Shy-like (for me, anyway), mainly because it's full of uncomplicated melody and songs that get into your head very easily. This isn't a deep and meaningful record, but it is one that's designed to be enjoyed.

For the most part, the album follows the rule of thumb with smooth, melodic tracks, but there's a few exceptions. The mid-album song 'Dream On' is the only one that doesn't quite work for me, feeling like it needed more work on some rough edges, while album closer 'Seventh Wonder' changes the style completely with a bombastic marching tone; good for fists in the air but not so much for dancing. It's still a good track though, as is 'Storm Warning' which precedes it, a bouncier offering than the rest that, if anything, could have fitted well on Shy's 'Once Bitten... Twice...' debut.

'Streets Of Chance' is the Tony Mills album I was hoping for, a return to Melodic Rock and big choruses, where the guitar solos are absolutely fine but not the focus of the song, with repeated plays bringing more enjoyment. At times, it made me feel I was a teenager again.

Alan Holloway