For what it's worth, I thought the debut from Italian melodic rock band,
Hungry Heart was uninspired and dismally dull.
Too much wannabe and not enough honesty.
It's all very well being obsessively eighties in your musical worldview, but all too often, slavish addiction translates into copycats and clichés.
Consequently, I wasn't expecting much from the follow up.
How wrong can you be.
Yes, the music - for the first 5 tracks - is unashamed, undiluted eighties' melodic rock, but this time it is a triumph of passion over pastiche. The star spangled rock theatrics have a distinctly European tone, like the band reached just the right balance between style and identity.
On openers
'Stand Up' and
'One Ticket To Paradise' it sounds like they've made something brand new and shiny out of spare parts discarded by Norway's Hush and the good ole USA's Stan Bush.
So far, this material leaves
HEAT standing at the starting gate.
The surefooted, gorgeous sounding ballad,
'A Million Miles Away' displays a confidence and a sophistication reached only by artists at the top of their game, vaguely reminiscent of Don Henley and John Waite, though vocally the resemblance is closer to Henley.
On
'Let Somebody Love You' a commercially inclined sense of romanticism creeps in, recalling
Bonfire and Bormann, while
'Boulevard Of Love' (yes, Boulevard) sounds just as cheesy as the title suggests, but roaringly empowered cheese, not just the kind that makes you smile.
'
Angela's loping, funkrock groove signals that we're now moving off tangentially.
'Love Is The Right Way' and
'Let's Keep On Trying' continue in the same direction, in much the same manner as did
Cinderella with 'Heartbreak Station' painting their tuneful rock music an attractively bluesy hue. That said, it's hard to avoid the
Bon Jovi cowboy rock influences (but worth the effort).
Clearly then, all the well worn pieces are there, resprayed and buffed up by a band with something to offer today, and they've made them fit, creating just as satisfying a melodic rock picture as we looked at and enjoyed 25 years ago.
It's much more usual for a band to stumble at the second fence, having used up their best songs on the debut.
Hungry Heart are clearly no prisoners to convention as judging by 'One Ticket To Paradise', they saved the best stuff for the follow up.
Either that or they've learned the art of writing impressively melodic songs in the interim.
Written by
Brian Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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