Hard on the heels of Harlot's
'Room With A View' and BJoe's '
Ready To Ride', Denmark's Olafssong's have reissued another two classic
AOR albums.
The TOJ album, originally released in 1991, is the better known, and very highly regarded among afficionados.
It's a slick, tasty mix of catchy, sophisticated Westcoast rock spiked with concentrated
AOR.
The band, essentially a duo, was formed by vocalist and writer, Henrik Launbjerg and guitarist / writer, Hans Egestorp after a chance meeting at a Music Workshop in Elsinore, Denmark.
The first result of the collaboration was the single
'When The Rain Falls' - a wet dream for
Lava fans - and it was on the strength of that song that the band got signed.
They subsequently released '
One Of These Days'.
History tells us that the album suffered the ignominy of being ignored by almost all but the world's bargain bins.
The wheel has turned full circle now and the recording has been resurrected and restored, revealing a clutch of outstanding songs, arrangements and production work.
Produced by writer/guitarist, Egestorp, the album shows his grasp of the pop stylings and
FM radio friendly hooks that high profile bands like The LA Cowboys and Mr Mister, and to some extent, Toto used to project their own takes on the Westcoast genre.
The album is littered with outstanding songs, beautifully arranged.
The lilting title track
'One Of These Days', the breezy, bouncy '
Some People' and the lush, ornately urbane
'Hold On' are among the picks, though the margin is small.
Elsewhere, Danish band Hush has built a career around songs like opener '
Watching Your Moves', where the
AOR feelgood factor has been torqued up to eleven and each and every heartstring has been tugged to breaking point.
Launbjerg's voice has an amazing resemblance to Don Henley's, with perhaps a twist of
Richard Page adding to the attraction, arguably providing the band with an authenticity that could not readily be claimed by other European purveyors of the Westcoast sound.
Written by
Brian Thursday, November 15, 2007
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