Wow, that's early. Any other thoughts on it?
Yeah, quite early, and the funny thing I don't even have to review it, some other author claimed it earlier.
So yeah, other thoughts, here we go. I think the songs can be grouped in basically three categories: alright / better than alright; good but pretty cheesy; awesome. The former is a pretty large category, I think I would put more than half of the song from the album here, and their biggest problem is they are all very similar in vibe and structure to title track. Well, of course there are some differences, but I think Open Your Eyes, Last Goodbye, Run With a Dream, and maybe Lights Out are all kind of the same thing repeated over and over, in my opinion. It does make a rocking album though. Also, Walk on Water, After the Night is Over and Right Now are also in the alright category for me.
Good but pretty cheesy, that's more interesting. This one includes Salvation, which is pretty good song but when the chorus hits and the lyrics go "Salvation! I can't resist your temptation!" I just want to do a facepalm or two; and also Breaking Neptune, which is basically an enhanced version of Walk on Water, but more likable.
Awesome category has only two songs in my book, but they just do up my enjoyment from the album a fair notch. First is Rising Up (like a phoenix from the flame, no less), great fast rocking track with nice keyboard arrangements and overall just amazing (City of Heroes and other heavier tunes pale in comparison), and I also love Amanda's voice on this one. The second awesome song is Ocean of Tears, but I'm just a general fan of ballads, so don't get your hopes up. This song is really unique here though, the only true ballad on the album, with something that sounds like a violin and cello, clear soulful voices of Amanda and Michael, well I just love this song. It's cheesy and sugary, yes, just as I like my hard rock ballads.
I can also say Amanda's and Michael's voices are distributed pretty evenly on the album, maybe even 50 / 50, mostly because of the songs' usual structure. Often it goes like verse that consists of two parts, sung by each vocalist, then the chorus where they're singing together, another two-part verse, chorus, guitar solo, another chorus, the standard structure, you get it. Therefore it's quite easy to get an even distribution. Some songs aren't like that though, for example in Rising Up chorus I can only hear Amanda, and even if Kiske is singing, I can't hear him, I have a feeling he's singing only "rising up" line, and not the rest, and the song really benefits from the clean chorus.
Even though I've said a lot of songs are just alright, the album is really enjoyable. I usually don't pay a lot of attention if some songs are similar to each other as long as I like them, so I liked this album. Not enough to buy it, perhaps, but still, good stuff.
I hope that's answers your question about other thoughts, but if you got anything else to ask about the album, fire away, I guess.