Who would have thought that a UK festival, celebrating music that was popular 25 years ago would have this much influence.
Galvanised by audience response to their appearance at Firefest 2009, Mark Mangold and Al Fritsch have kick started Drive She Said, delivering 4 new recordings and 13 handpicked tracks from their back catalogue.
I'll be brief here. The converted will already know the history.
Mark (American Tears/Touch) Mangold formed
Drive, She Said with multi instrumentalist and vocalist, Al Fritsch late in the eighties, releasing the debut in 1989 (what a year that was for great melodic rock releases).
That debut featured co-writes with Benny Mardones, Fiona and Aldo Nova, giving the album - if it ever needed it - an impressive stamp of
AOR authority, and indeed, credibility.
The "More" on this
'Best Of And More' consists of 4 tracks.
'Fools Game' and
'I Found Someone' are 2 oldies but goldies. Co-writes between Mangold and Michael Bolton, and Mangold and Cher respectively, now rerecorded by the duo.
Both songs get the DSS treatment. Anticipatory, almost tentative openings, building up to a crescendo of thumping chords, layered keyboards and pulsating, hooky choruses.
In keeping with the 13 'Best Of' tracks, culled from a reasonably thick volume of back catalogue material, these 4 tracks have a warm, valve driven ambience. It's not a clean, crystal clear mix. The duo knows this can freeze the music twixt cup and lip and have acted accordingly.
The 2 new songs, written on the eve of their Firefest appearance are nothing short of immense. The first,
'Dreams Will Come' - very Fleetwood Mac - is less of a departure from the old DSS sound as that suggests. Sophisticated, harmonic, memorably melodic.
The second,
'Try2LetGo' is as contemporary as the title indicates. Taut, tense and terrifically entertaining modern melodic rock. To sound like you came from the eighties but live in the here and now takes a huge amount of artistic discipline. Especially when that means lacing your song with pitch black beats, loops and jittery electronic touches while simultaneously ensuring that a great tune shines brightly at its core, one that just demands to be listened to. Arguably one of the best things that DSS have done.
Elsewhere, we get the original, career launching singles, first, the archetypal
'If This Is Love' and second, the majestic
'Think Of Love' (a personal favourite), as well as another 5 tracks from the debut. Plus a couple of tracks from 1991's 'Drivin Wheel' and from 2003's 'Real Life' album.
For those melodic rock fans who have, for some inexplicable reason, never dipped their toe in the DSS waters, this is a marvellous place to begin.
Written by
Brian Saturday, May 15, 2010
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