Tom Keifer “A Different Light”

Released this past January, the new single from Cinderella singer Tom Keifer, “A Different Light,” starts modestly, with nothing more than a melody leading us through the dark silence, its tone seeming to reach out to anyone listening in hopes of finding a friendly soul.

URL: http://www.tomkeifer.com/

Even before Keifer begins to sing, there’s a weighty emotionality hanging over the song as it comes into focus, this instrumental introduction acting as a precursor to all of the decadence that will soon wash over us in a sonic deluge. When verses finally do come into the fold, we’re already primed for anything they could vault in our direction – however, the same cannot be said for the tone in which this singer will croon them to us. The warmth of his voice extends itself to us over the melody and growing guitar presence, and though we’re not even sixty seconds into “A Different Light,” it is obvious that we aren’t going to be hearing just another run-of-the-mill adult contemporary ballad in the next four minutes or so. 

Keifer takes a minute to find his footing against the backdrop of the instrumentation, but once he locates the confidence that was ever-present in his previous hits, it’s next to impossible to stop his swaggering personality from spreading to anyone within earshot of the verse. He’s an unflappable tour de force in “A Different Light,” and though there is certainly a lot we could say about the ethereal musical spectacle taking place right beside him amongst the backing band’s play, there’s not a second in this song where he isn’t rightly earning the lion’s share of the audience’s attention with his majestic serenade. This is the most pronounced his vocal attack has ever been, and while I liked his first pair of tracks to debut just last year, they pale in comparison to the aesthetical wonderwork he’s assembled for us in this latest submission. 

“A Different Light” concludes with a heck of a lot more bombast than it initially starts us off with, but while it isn’t lacking in lavishness as it retreats into the silence from which it was first sprung up only a few short minutes earlier, I think its finish is probably its most striking moment. Tom Keifer assumes his rightful place in the hierarchy of legendary rock artists in “A Different Light,” and depending on how he chooses to broach the next chapter in the story of his career, I think this could wind up being one of the most important songs he cuts as a latter-day king.

He’s rolling like a genuine professional in this single, depending more on his natural talents than he is on any of the bells and whistles in the master mix, and finding a unique balance between the pop rhythms of yesteryear and the modern rock melodies of today that could appeal to just about anyone who loves quality music. All in all, I think this is one of the more interesting looks he could have gone with in this kind of performance. 

Mindy McCall