Justin Masters is a guitarist/songwriter who has been living in New York City since 2000, which, as he explains is pretty much his whole adult life and his press release goes on to say he has spent those 17 years in and out of other people’s bands playing their music and following the vision of someone else. But now finally in 2017 he’s taken it upon himself to get something of his own completed and the end result is his debut “Good Life Bad Liver”.
Master’s has crafted twelve straight-ahead rock songs with a singer/songwriter feel. I think Willie Nile or Rod Picott to get an idea of the sound being offered here. He’s tapped singer Zach Allen of NYC band Tempt to sing his songs and Allen has just a bit of a young Jon Bon Jovi sound to his voice, fitting well within the confines of Masters’ material.
Songs like the album opener “Crazy Way To Live” and “Innocent Times” are pure rock numbers with catchy choruses to have you singing along in short order. “Crazy Way To Live” is melancholy in its lyrics but also melodic with the musical background while “Innocent Times” is more upbeat and has a nice summer vibe to it. I like Masters’ lyrics as they are simple and identifiable to the everyday man.
“If You’re Still Alive” is a song with a nice mellow vibe while the subsequent “Who Took Our Rock & Roll” is more rocked up with Zach Allen adding some attitude to the song within his vocal delivery. The song “Whiskey Turns To Gold” is a strong point off the album as it is a perfectly crafted song in my opinion. It has great sentiment in the lyrics which read like poetry. I always thought that great singer/songwriters are truly poets and it’s the reason I love artists like Michael McDermott and Edwin McCain, so getting to hear that in Masters song too is pretty special to me.
“Illusion Of Love” is another interesting song that is lyrically bare-bones in a way but gets its point across and is helped by the instrumentation and overall vibe of the song and I like the guitar solo on this one also. “Can You Blame Me For Loving You” is another mellow track with an almost bluesy structure and a slight bit of a country flare to it too.
“90 Minute Love Affair” actually struck me as sounding like something that could have come off of Jon Bon Jovi’s solo “Destination Anywhere” record of the late 90’s. It’s a little bit quirky and little bit tongue-in-cheek but I like it lyrically and it ends up being kind of fun to me overall.
“Good Life Bad Liver” ends with the song “King For A Day” and it’s another cool track with some good lyrics and I like the way Masters crafted this one right down to the fleeting guitar solo.
All in all “Good Life Bad Liver” from Justin Masters is a pretty cool debut for this singer/songwriter and he’ll be worth keeping an eye out for in the future, so let’s keep hoping he continues to follow his own vision because the results could be very much worth it.
