We reviewed the single 'Hold On', a trailer for the full album, last year.
We said: "'Hold On' is an
AOR lightning strike, trapped in the amber of eighties'
FM Radio. It's what good soft rock is all about, losing the love, the dream. The sound of summer and a life just out of reach.
Roll on the full album."
And here it is.
Actually, it's been out for a while, released on the bands own label.
Now it's been picked up by Spinefarm Records (Universal) and has been re-released in the UK with 2 additional tracks.
Discovered by DJ Dave Laroxx,
Houston are a Swedish duo, Freddie Allen and Hank Erix. They've been mentored by Scandanavian
AOR specialists, Tommy Denander and Ricky Delin.
Producer, Delin, brought in genre luminaries, Mats Olaunder on keyboards and both Thomas Vikstrom and Kristoffer Lagerstrom on bgvs. Lagerstrom was involved with Denander in the
Spin Gallery and
Radioactive projects.
As the single suggested, the music is unashamed
AOR, with distinct Westcoast leanings. Aficionados will recognise that there's a thin line between the two.
Again, the argument: If a band faithfully recreates the classic sound of the past - in this case eighties'
AOR - do they deserve the plaudits and the prizes?
Or should the acclaim, the recognition be reserved only for the truly innovative?
Does it matter?
One way or the other, for me, it comes down to two things, motivation and talent.
If you get these right, if you have both in abundance, then your music will transcend genres and be seen as a triumph of passion over pastiche.
It's good to report then that this is a debut album of considerable poise and confidence, a soundtrack to middle America's monopoly of the popular rock airwaves in the eighties. A place where unashamed romanticism and unadorned sentimentality burned brightly.
Equal emphasis is placed on songwriting and sound. Consequently, the album is brimful of insanely effortless hooks, often unassuming but always gripping.
Each song swells with swooning synths and radiant bursts of guitar, providing a gorgeous pop rush to even the slowest tempo. Critics have quoted Journey,
Giant and Survivor, but there's clearly several Mick (
Foreigner) Jones wannabees well established in the songwriting and production team.
Opening track
'Pride' fully expands on that
Foreigner notion, with a heartfelt vocal wringing out the last ounce of emotion against a backdrop of neatly orchestrated keyboards. Disappointingly, the team stops short of adding a gospel choir.
Elsewhere, you'll call to mind the obvious high flyers, but frequently, some of the greats who never really made it to household name permanence will also stray into your radar range. Bands like Alias (
1000 Songs), Total Stranger
(She's A Mystery), Frozen Ghost (
Misery), while '
Give Me Back My Heart' starts out like Air Supply and finishes up like Survivor.
It's hard to understand why UK bonus tracks,
'Under Your Skin' and '
Chasing The Dream' were left off the original release. The first of the two is an absolute gem, sounding like it fell off the back of John Waite's debut solo album. The second is much in the mould of other album tracks, a variation on a theme that only breaks out the mould on the metallised chorus.
Still, In this time of parody laden junk rock, it's a pleasure to luxuriate in an album that aims to add quality to a market that's in danger of suffocating on the mediocre.
And as a postscript, it's also good to know they'll be in the UK in March to do a few gigs.
Written by
Brian Monday, January 17, 2011
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