"Right" said Fred, "Frontiers want another '
Living It Up'."
So they did their best - Fred Hendrix, Ron Hendrix, Gesuino Derosas and Lars Beuving.
The result is '
Come Alive', but more accurately it really should be titled 'Coming Of Age'.
On this new album, (Fred) Hendrix - writer, producer, vocalist - takes all the best elements of
'Living It Up', itself a larger than life homage to the glory days of eighties AOR, and marries them to a newfound maturity in rock song composition and production.
At times, Hendrix's catchy hooks belie the sophistication of the music. This is melodic rock with a grown up resonance.
The title track,
'Come Alive' opens the album with one of the most deceptively hook-laden melodies ever conceived. After a minute and a half, it suddenly transforms from breezy, bouncy, keyboard driven AOR, with touches of ELO, into a monster melodic rock song with a sustained chorus of depth and quality.
The second track,
'Fighting Yourself' isn't bad either, or the third, or the fourth etc etc.
The band stray into the verges of metal territory on that second track. Hendrix delivers an abrasive vocal - reminiscent of John Schlitt - on a song with a sturdy melody and all the urgency and drive of great rock and metal.
'Holy Grail' launches with a rushing, Survivor-ish guitar motif and a welcome reinvention of all-join-in, na-na-na bgvs. Hendrix's vocal melody and pacing then catch you by surprise, as much an incantation as a vocal set against fabulously tuneful guitar arpeggios and keyboard crescendos.
Sonically, Hendrix has got it just about right. What would undoubtedly be a modest budget has been amped up to arena rock proportions without resorting to a phoney grandiosity or substituting bombast for genuine emotion.
That is not to say he flinches at the idea of fleshing out his songs with eighties' era sentimentality. The balladic
'Here Comes The Night' is a case in point, with Hendrix emoting gracefully over pealing guitars and appealing bgvs.
Sketched around a dominant piano, the slightly skewed melody and rampant romanticism of tear jerker, '
Those Eyes' goes a step further, hiking up the soft sell to mammoth levels.
Elsewhere,
'Under Pressure' reflects the classy, glossy poprock of fellow countryman, Robbie Valentine, while
'Do Or Die' again suggests the harder edged, contemporary rock of John Schlitt's solo material.
But comparisons aside, this is clearly
Terra Nova. A new
Terra Nova who've been shaped and formed by the musical events of the last 14 years
('Living it Up' was 1996) but haven't forgotten their beginnings and have learned a hell of a lot on the way.
'
Come Alive' may not be the helter skelter ride that was '
Living It Up', it doesn't have the same immediacy, but it's jam packed with hooks that will eventually pierce the strongest of defences, and filled to bursting with great melodic rock music that will last long after the final note has faded.
Written by
Brian Sunday, August 8, 2010
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