Another young, extremely promising
AOR band from Sweden.
And the label, Blue Topaz clearly think they're onto something, rush releasing these tracks ahead of a full album.
'2 Hearts' is self evidently modelled on the
Blue Tears blueprint, with finishing touches added by Phantoms Opera.
Mainman, producer, guitarist and co-songwriter Oz Osakaru, clearly motivated by an unadulterated love of the genre, has taken a battered, dog eared but well defined snapshot of eighties'
AOR and restored it to its former glory, using 21
st century technology and lots of enthusiasm.
There's skill and talent there, in abundance. Co-producers Osakaru and keyboard player, Matthias Rosen have stretched and pulled a shoestring budget into more shapes and sounds than the laws of physics ordinarily allows.
Opener and title track
'2 Hearts' is immense. It has all the pace, panache and urgency of great
AOR, with a naggingly famiar tune, driven by a sublime guitar motif and a gloriously thematic keyboard swell.
The remaining tracks all try hard to get out from under the shadow of that opener, and although none really succeed, they all walk tall.
I've often criticised
AOR bands for ignoring the changes in rock music over the last 20 years and slavishly replicating the past.
That's what
Eye have done. Yet it sounds magnificent. More pastiche than plagiarism. Not a tribute but a triumph.
Okay, a 7 track album is a slim volume of work on which to judge, but tracks like the yearning, heart rending '
These Tears' and the awesome, archetypal, emblematic-of-the-eighties, '
Without You' sound fresh and invigorated, like the genre just walked out of a hot shower. A work of art formed from disparate sources is still a work of art.
Ignore the fact it's lyrically clumsy and clichéd in places. Just luxuriate in the evocative music.
Can't wait to hear more of this band.
One to watch, unequivocally.
Written by
Brian Saturday, March 14, 2009
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