Review by contributor Chris McLafferty

Mike Wojniak is back with an absolute force of an album. An album that changes the way you experience music, and make no mistake, this is not listening to music, this album is an experience of a soul searching musical set inside you head with you as the lead actor running through the show for the first time without any idea of what’s to come. Libero is Tyler Durden and you are Jack’s Smirking Revenge. Get ready, ’cause if it’s your first night, you have to fight!

Blood in My Veins

A haunting thought provoking opening that instantly prepares us for something we’re not ready for but have been constantly subconsciously waiting for. Mike starts us off with a chilling piano number while Andrew stretches burrowing pain from the cello “Everything that you loved will be gone in the end.” The mood and lyrics induce high levels of thought on morality, meaning of life and the ceiling power, or lack thereof, of love. This is just the beginning.

Woodlands

After breaking you down and leaving you stunned, Mike “Reach(es)  out in the dark for your hand” to continue this journey. He’s only just begun and now that he has your attention he isn’t ready to let you off the hook.  You now blindly run through the dark forest,  Mike’s voice eliminates all sense of fear guiding you down this new path of uncertainty. Minute by minute this rush intensifies til the breakdown at 5 minutes where you spin and realize how beautiful yet how lost you are. It’s at this point you’re locked on and ready for this soulful tour you’ve just begun.

Now that you’re ready and mystified like a lost Alice in Mike Wojniak’s musical wonderland, you’re gently brought into this new world. This new world where every stroke of the cello, every note of Mike’s voice questions more and more of what your previous world was surrounded by. Mike has become such a master of letting his voice sway and carry, the sound so natural and true that you, without any ounce of knowledge it’s occurring, continue down this journey to find what rings inside.

Patience, My Dear Friend

The upbeat start-up braces you for the quick paced verse before you breakthrough into the slower chorus that promises that “It’s gonna change your life.” Not just life in its broadest terms but change the way you listen to music and the standard to which you perceive good music. It has a nice catchy poppy sound but it doesn’t sell itself short relying on solely the catchiness. It challenges and builds upon itself to be better than what it could get away with. Which isn’t easy but that’s probably why the song is called “Patience, My Dear Friend.”

Don’t Lose Your Fire

Feel that? That’s your insides feeling pulled and man handled by this song. It grabs your attention while you’re still wrapping your head around the haunting opening.  It’s here I realize I’ve lost my morals. Mike has grabbed them and holds them high, making me fight to reach for them back. It’s during this process I realize why they’ve meant to me and how badly I’m going to encompass them when I finally get them back. I reach and reach but realize even if I get them back, there’s honestly no reason for it. Mike’s not finished with them and he’s going to take them when he pleases, which I feel might be until the end of this album. This music itself sets a mood that is unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. It’s like your walk towards the Eye of Sauron to throw down your over consuming ring. This song itself is fire burning all around while I’m running blindly to the sound of Mike’s voice over an epic barrage of musical talent spread throughout a vast and wide variety of instruments. The drums are my pace while the sound carries my demeanor.

3Am

The cello hits you like a ton of bricks instantly stopping you in your place. “Your shimmering face underneath the street light” in Mike’s deep sexy voice should be an illegal firearm for all women everywhere.  But this song is so much more than that. It’s actually a shame for that sentence to be involved in such pure romantic love that this song bleeds, but I’m me and not a romantic, though I might be if Mike continues to bring it in such an appealing light. He paints such a vivid end of night, that you share with that one person you never want to let go. You would trade every breath of your life just to never let this night end because you know it’ll never be the same.  It’s an HD image ending to a story more romantically fulfilling then The Notebook.  Much like that night, this song makes you grasp for every last second in an effort for it to never end. Unfortunately it does but not before gently putting to an end that will keep a smile on your face for quite some time.

Is This What You Want?

The night has ended and I lie awake alone. “Hold on, you’re better than this” he reassures me. An inspiration thought provoking start that again has Mike holding my morals high, searching for my bearings.  THE MOOD of these songs is soul pounding. I don’t think I’ve spent this much time internalizing on any album before. A true soul search along a highway of music heaven that lasts as long as you’re willing to ride it. “It’s only after we’ve lost everything, we are free to do anything,” a wise man once quoted.  This is the point where we as listens realize we’ve lost everything, or everything we once thought was everything.

With Morning Will Come Next Daylight

It’s official – Mike has one of the most beautiful voices in the entire world. This song would make Sid And Nancy hug it out. This is the beginning of that something new, our next daylight. With our night behind us we can start to seek out this next daylight.

What You Love Must Be Set Free

I walk through the forest while the crickets lonely play to whoever will listen. The stars shine bright above me as I lay, ever gently, everything I love into the soft flowing dark blue river with its tiny audible splashes sprinkling my ear. I watch as they slowly drift down the river, increasingly farther away from me. I continue to watch them float away, letting the feeling of loss overcome my body. Again I look towards them flowing down the river and wonder how much work it’ll take to bring them back to me. Is it worth the time? Then I hear the sound of crickets, and realize that could be my reality.

Aeroplane

A revival of that “Somebody that you used to know!” Mike, like the classy gentlemen he is – I don’t think I can stress this enough – he is the ultimate musical angel, taking the high road where some/most would take the low road. Instead of being angry and mad about someone who has changed from the person he once knew and loved, Mike writes them a love song so amazingly inspiring it should soon be the new theme song for Intervention. Spotlighting everything great this person once did that has since been forgotten. “Why don’t you come back to life?”

Safer Landing

The wording and placement of these last two tracks is phenomenal. A well put together journey that needs to be listened in order. LIKE AN ALBUM SHOULD BE! After encouraging the better sides of yourself, Mike doesn’t leave you, instead safely landing you back into this upbeat smile inducing expression of feeling free and ready to take on the world as the best person you can be. The music grabs and pushes you forward into a free sprint down the middle of traffic-less road while the wind whips at you, yet never slows you down.

Listen to Your Heart

A song completely musically different from anything else on the album.  The ending of this soul searching beach walk which began opening your mind to an examination of your life, had your morals taken and held high, lost your love, only to get the encouraging push to let everything go that ties you down and freely experience the world according to your own heart.  It’s here you feel weightless with a whistle holding you high above the sand, and you realize you’re no longer making pressure indents on the sandy beautifulness.

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