Category Archives: aor

CROWN OF THORNS – Crown Of Thorns

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If you meet people who were fans of melodic rock in the 80s, chances are, they’ll bang on tirelessly about how alternative music killed melodic rock at the beginning of the nineties.  However, in 1994,a small UK based label called Now & Then Records provided a wave of genuine excitement with their first bunch of releases.  After releasing an album by Gary Hughes (later to become the frontman with pomp/melodic rock giants Ten), the label released a string of fantastic melodic rock discs, some of which had been rescued from the vaults of major labels, destined to potentially never see the light of day.

One of these early releases was the debut album by Crown of Thorns, a black rock band made up of a handful of cult musicians. Featured in the band’s first line-up were ex-Plasmatics/Little Steven man Jean Bouvoir, drummer Tony Thompson, who’d previously worked with the Duran Duran/Robert Palmer vehicle The Power Station, and bassist Michael Paige.  Rounding out the quartet was a rather unexpected musician: Micki Free, who’d previously been a member of Shalamar’s final line-up.

Right from the opening bars of the first track – the band’s self-titled song – there’s a sense that Crown of Thorns are a really tight unit.  After a brief drum intro from Tony Thompson, lead guitars drive the track into its first verse where Beauvoir’s soulful vocal style adds plenty of melody, while retaining enough bite to still be very much a rock performance. While the chorus is strong and the band’s gift for solid arrangement should never be undervalued, it’s Micki Free’s lead guitar work which makes this a killer opener, as he strikes a perfect balance between melody and squealing rock chops.  Lead single ‘The Healer’ offers similar rock stylings, though it’s perhaps a little punchier all round.  Beauvoir’s vocal is turned up to eleven, hitting more high notes than elsewhere on the disc, but remaining totally professional, he understands the importance of melody and never overplays those rock elements. Again, the chorus comes with a big hook, but it’s the harmonies which really drive it home.

The album’s big ballad ‘Standing On The Corner for Ya’ is a match for many of the big, arguably more famous 80s rock ballads, with huge chords and fantastic use of harmonies throughout. Understated verses, featuring Beauvoir with piano accompaniment allow that big chorus to really make an impact.  As with many other tracks featured here, Micki Free’s guitar solo – this time full of long, string-bent epicness – provides one of the high points, even though it’s fairly short in duration. ‘Winterland’ (co-written with Kiss man Paul Stanley) gives the impression of a track that’s more atmospheric at first, due to a soft intro featuring Beauvoir delivering a modest performance, backed by a clean sounding guitar.  However, after a few bars Free chimes in with a few hard, rhythmic chords, which help give the number an extra bit of oomph.  The verses are decent enough, but a chorus featuring Beauvoir in good form, singing against some great harmonies really lifts the track even farther.  With such a simple and memorable chorus, it’s easy to forgive a guitar solo that includes a couple of odd, really jarring notes.

‘Dyin’ For Love’ moves away a little from the melodic hard rock sound and offers something closer to classic AOR.  This is due to a more mid-paced approach and a keyboard giving an extra depth of sound in places.  Tony Thompson’s drum line and Michael Paige’s bass work both provide solid simplicity, giving the band a fine anchor.  The arrangement is spot-on throughout and the chorus one of the album’s absolute best.  ‘Hike It Up’ is a track full of mid-paced paunchiness; while it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, it’s a brilliant driving rocker featuring great harmonies, a couple of great key-changes and a whammy bar solo.  If ‘Standin’ On The Corner’ and ‘Dyin’ For Love’ provide the album’s best examples of rock balladry and solid melodic song writing respectively, then ‘Hike It Up’ stands as one of the best examples of Crown of Thorns “the hard rock band”.

With an almost mechanical bassline, ‘Til The End’ has all the hallmarks of a Jim Vallance penned Bryan Adams number, though rather strangely, although Vallance is credited as co-writing a couple of numbers with Crown of Thorns, this particular track was written without his assistance.  Jean Beauvoir can be heard in particularly strong voice here, and although his performances on this release are all good in their own right, it’s on the slightly softer numbers he really comes into his own.  The harmonies used within this track are especially good.  If there’s a weak link on this debut album, then ‘Are You Ready’ pulls the short straw.  With its mix of hard rock, retro grooves and a tinge of funk metal, it was obviously designed as a live crowd-pleaser (and in the live setting it’s certainly rousing enough) but on record, its contrived efforts at creating good times do not translate quite as well in your average living room. That said, it’s definitely not a skipper.

Boasting so many strong numbers and decent production courtesy of renowned studio man Beau Hill, this debut is not only one of the best melodic rock discs of its time, it could possibly rank as one of the finest melodic rock discs ever.  It still sounds great so many years later.  Like a few of the other early Now & Then Records releases, it’s an album no decent melodic rock/AOR collection should be without.

June 2011

TALON – III

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Despite gaining reasonable accolades from the melodic rock community for their previous releases, in terms of stability, Californian rockers Talon had far from settled beginnings.  2011’s ‘III’ is a third attempt in more ways than one: not only is it their third album, but also begins an association between the band and a third record label.  Three record labels for three releases isn’t very good odds. Not only that, but this release also marks the arrival of another new lead vocalist (also their third over the course of three releases).  If nothing else, they get full marks for believing in themselves and not throwing in the towel at a time when other bands would have just given up.

On their strongest cuts, Talon is a band which delivers good, fist-pumping 80s rock. One of the album’s best numbers ‘You Don’t Know Me’ pitches Shawn Palata’s reasonably decent vocal against a backing harmony to achieve a result guaranteed to thrill a proportion of retro-rock fans.  Its riff, too, is of the simple chugging kind – and it’s often with such musical simplicity Talon excel.  Even better is the big sweeping solo, played with a great clarity by Jim Kee.  The keyboards are very low in the mix; sometime Takara man Eric Ragno deserves to be heard much more clearly here, even though his contributions are purely for colour.  The driving rock of ‘Walk Away’ ups the ante with the choppy riffs providing a decent basis for Pelata’s voice which, too, turns up a notch in an attempt to not be outdone by the general riffage.  If you imagine the most melodic end of Yngwie Malmsteen’s work with Mark Boals on the ‘Trilogy’ album crossed with the Heaven’s Edge debut, you’ll get a hint of what this track sounds like.  The chorus is relatively strong, but it’s not as strong as the guitar fills.  Before too long, it should be obvious to most that Jim Kee is Talon’s real star.

Eric Ragno gets time in the spotlight on the mid-paced ‘When Will I’, a track frontloaded with a pompy keyboard intro.  Beyond that, it’s business as usual with meaty mid-paced guitar riffs, of course, but it’s another example of Talon’s strongest side.  Pelata is in particularly good voice throughout, the solo is short but of a good standard and there’s also a rare example of bassist Phil Keller being high in the end mix.  It’s another solid, more than commendable effort, which is more than can be said for a couple of ballady efforts.  ‘Brothers’ offers too much schmaltz and treads the well worn path of a soldier’s tale of loss while remaining musically mediocre and ‘Maybe One Day’ is a predictable “contractual obligation” style acoustic sap.  Yes, it could be said that Pelata is in good voice on these numbers, but they’re both blandness personified.

‘Take You All The Way’ features a lead vocal by special guest Jeff Scott Soto.  As any self-respecting melodic rock fan knows, JSS is a legend.  Almost everything he’s lent his voice to – at least since his post-Malmsteen days – has been of a superb standard.  Sadly, he doesn’t appear in such great voice here, but the material isn’t that great either.  Since the song is written in Talon’s style – and possibly in the right key for Pelata – Soto’s performance is a little too waily.  It’s nowhere near awful, of course, but he is capable of far better.  Jim Kee more than makes up for the song’s weak points by offering at least two fantastic solos.  With ‘The Last Time’, you won’t get any great surprises from Talon: the key-changes are text-book, the featured solo is more than suitable for its purpose and the vocal harmonies are quite strong.  Despite their best efforts, though, there’s nothing which sticks out here in the long-term.  Like a good chunk of the album, it achieves those goals it sets out to achieve, but there’s a sense that Talon’s core audience are made up from those narrow-minded folks who listen to AOR/melodic rock…and enjoy nothing else.

The disc closes with a cover of the Jefferson Starship classic ‘Jane’.  Naturally, Pilata is no vocal match for Mickey Thomas, but looking beyond that, it’s a rather fun cover.  The riffs are obviously meatier than those ever delivered by any of Starship’s incarnations, while those riffs are topped by a great set of stabbing keys, which obviously are essential if anyone is to cover this tune properly.  It manages to bring a tiny amount of Talon’s melodic metal edge to the table without ever being disrespectful to Jefferson’s 1979 hit.  And, once again, it’s nice to hear Ragno out front and not buried beneath the guitars.

Overall, Talon volume three is a solid but undemanding record.  There are more than reasonable choruses and riffs scattered throughout the album and the band are all more than competent players, particularly guitarist Jim Kee.  Talon’s ‘III’ might just have enough charm to attract a reasonable amount of fans with it’s over familiarity.  For others, though, that just might not be enough to set Talon apart from the hundreds of other second division melodic rock bands releasing albums via the Escape Music and Frontiers Records stables.

December 2011

CROSSFADE – Secret Love

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In 2004, Crossfade’s debut album, ‘White On Blue’ was extremely well received by melodic rock fans and critics. Although Swedish, the band’s music celebrated the late 70s and early 80s sounds of American westcoast music, with a particularly strong nod to the styles set out by Toto’s earlier works. Joining guitarist Lars Hallbäck and keyboard player Richard Stenström, renowned melodic rock vocalist Göran Edman completed the core of the band’s line-up. Having normally been associated with harder rock styles, often in a very Scandinavian style, Crossfade’s smoother edges allowed Edman to really show off his range as a vocalist, making an album which more than deserved the praise it received.

Seven years in the making, Crossfade’s second release, ‘Secret Love’ picks up where ‘White On Blue’ left off, with Edman, Hallbäck and Stenström joined by session players Per and Sven Lindstrom (bass and drums respectively), with Wotjek Goral on saxes. Following a sax intro, the band launch head-on into their opening number ‘A Wonderful Illusion’ which borrows a great amount of style from Toto and other westcoast luminaries Airplay along the way. The guitar playing is smooth and very tasteful and the overall arrangement shows a great tightness, while Edman proves strong vocally. A mid section offers some great orchestration, with the band hinting that they could be capable of flying off on a slightly jazzy tangent. They never do, however, preferring instead to keep things focused on songs rather than muso-based wanderings. This is a very strong opening number on all fronts, with a strong sense of melody, helped immensely by a hooky chorus fleshed out with female harmonies.

That sets the mood for the bulk of the disc, although if anything, the title track moves even farther into the late 70s/early 80s westcoast vibe. Led by a fluid bass, augmented by tinkling keys, the song plays host to another decent chorus and even better playing: guitar leads which would make Steve Lukather proud provide some good moments, but they aren’t ever as impressive as the track’s bass-lines. High in the end mix, Per Lindstrom sets a strong basis for the rest of the band to work around; his bass so often pivotal to this band’s best work. Another bevvy of female voices fills a chorus, over which Edman’s lead is possibly stronger than before. The slightly funky arrangement lends itself well to the instrumental sections; something never more obvious than on the instrumental play out, where Hallbäck finds a great space with his guitar leads.

Slightly soulier in places, ‘Heart of a Hero’ presents a shuffling arrangement. With that bass at the centre yet again, there’s a key difference here in that a harmonica often takes a dominant role over the keys and guitars. There are Crossfade’s usual musical features in abundance, of course: on this track, during the slightly more upbeat moments, the mood is right for a handful of top-notch guitar leads and a slightly ugly keyboard solo. Yes, that keyboard sound could be described as dated, but it’s perfectly in keeping with the “1982 time-capsule” so many of these tunes sound like they’ve culled from. Not to labour a point but, once again, if you love Toto, Jay Graydon and perhaps a little Bill Champlin, there’s plenty to enjoy here. Fusing a smooth AOR vibe with an almost reggae pulse from the keyboards, ‘In My Mind’ gets off to a slightly wobbly start. As such, it could have been this album’s weak link, but a killer chorus makes up for the verse’s slightly off-kilter nature. It doesn’t actually anything you haven’t heard before from Crossfade at this point, but Edman is in particular fine voice, while an occasional twin guitar sound during the featured solo adds a slight edge. Judged on chorus alone, this represents lots of Crossfade’s strengths.

‘Waiting For a Miracle’ is an extended arrangement which really finds its feet during a lengthy instrumental passage, utilising a muted trumpet as its lead voice. Leading up to those moments, however, it’s business as usual: Edman stretches his vocal to its limit – though, sounding like the consummate professional he never resorts to over-singing anything to make an impression – while the rest of the band offer great performances, be they vibrato guitar leads, jazzy basswork or even jazzier pianos. It may be a little too smooth jazz oriented for the AOR purists, but for those approaching this album from a classic westcoast perspective it’s surely one of the album’s most essential listens.
The only time Crossfade breaks away from their beloved westcoast sound is during the atmospheric instrumental ‘Borrowdale’, a track which appears here as both a full length number and reprise. Featuring a vibrato-filled lead guitar smoothly played over a blanket of eighties synths, this owes a huge debt to Jeff Beck (in particular, parts of his ‘Guitar Shop’ from 1989). It shows Hallbäck off as a wonderful guitarist, with a great tone to his work, even when pushed outside his usual AOR and westcoast boundaries. It may be the odd man out here, musically speaking, but it’s still far better than anything you could ever consider filler material.

Although it’s slightly rockier nature in a couple of places means that Crossfade’s ‘Secret Love’ is not quite as perfect as the 2010 debut from State Cows, this album still presents something immensely enjoyable in its musical field. It could be accused of being a little Toto obsessed, but when was that ever a bad thing?! This is a superb second album from Crossfade, one which fans will consider well worth the seven year wait.

November 2011

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CHRIS OUSEY – Rhyme & Reason

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His input on the Virginia Wolf albums and Heartland’s debut release back in the 80s would have been enough alone to secure Chris Ousey a place in the AOR hall of fame. However, Chris Ousey’s musical journey did not end there: although from that point on, his career moved toward more of a cult following, throughout the 90s and beyond, Ousey continued to be one of the UK’s hardest working voices in melodic rock.  Heartland’s career moved apace, releasing various albums for the Escape Music label throughout the 90s and beyond, and in addition, Ousey also embarked on a side project with Pokerface’s Kenny Kaos entitled The Distance (not to be confused with the similarly-named American band featuring Robert Hart).

Released almost two and a half decades after the Virginia Wolf debut put Ousey on the map, you could say his solo debut was a long time coming – and you’d be right.  Some things, however, are worth the wait.  2011’s ‘Rhyme & Reason’ is not simply a continuation of the Heartland saga; it presents something far better.  For this record, Ousey pits his instantly recognisable voice against some of melodic rock’s other premier talents.  The respected Tommy Denander joins Ousey’s band on guitar alongside the absolutely legendary guitarist/producer Mike Slamer, while ex-Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray and sometime David Lee Roth/Joe Satriani drummer Gregg Bissonette fill the rhythm section.  As far as session bands go, that’s quite a line up.  Across this album’s dozen tracks they sound truly inspired, as if this bringing together of various talents yielded the kind of spark long lost in some melodic rock quarters.

There are no weak songs to be found here – all twelve tracks on ‘Rhyme & Reason’ offer something enjoyable for the discernable melodic rock fan.  Naturally, of course, there are a few clear standouts.  The stabbing keys and overdriven guitar riff which provide the heart of the opening track ‘The Mother of Invention’ are in a style which sets the tone for the rest of the record.  Ousey’s lead voice sounds powerful and the music, in melodic rock terms at least, comes with a big presence befitting of such a vocal.  The keyboards bring a mechanical muscle in places, and although this gives a late 80s feel to the track, it never feels fake in any way.  The lead guitar work is of a great standard – as you’d expect from both Denander and Slamer – showy, but not too showy; these guys know that, first and foremost, this is Ousey’s record.  The bar gets raised a little higher still on ‘Motivation’ which features some clean guitar lines during the intro which in turn give way to another great, slightly dirtier riff.  The overall mood is funky without opting for a full-out funk rock workout and the band sounds tight throughout.  Despite the dominant guitars, mechanical keys still provide the musical glue which holds everything together.  Ousey doesn’t hit as many big notes as he is capable on this number, but in some ways there’s no need – the choppy rhythms speak for themselves and carry everything well enough.

Something softer, ‘A Natural Love’ really highlights Ousey’s top vocal skills as he stretches his lines with relative ease.  Backed by a by a fairly predictable – yet still great – AOR arrangement, his voice sounds wonderful on a number which could have graced any number of Heartland albums in the past, except for one key difference: Mike Slamer is a far better guitarist than Heartland’s Steve Morris (sorry Steve!) and here, with the help of Tommy Denander he adds some great sweeping guitar lines which are absolutely perfect for the piece.  Those looking for something punchy need look no farther than ‘Give Me Shelter’, a three minute burst of rock, which aside from carrying another driving, arpeggio filled riff, has plenty of pompy keyboards.  Not to be outdone by such a solid musical backdrop, Ousey goes all-out here, delivering a vocal which could proudly stand alongside his best.  His voice has held up well over the years and this only proves it.

‘Watch This Space’ offers something a little lighter in places once again, as Ousey lends his voice track which wouldn’t have sounded too out of place on Toto’s ‘Kingdom of Desire’ album with its slightly fuzzy guitar riffs.  When it’s Ousey’s turn at the microphone, the guitars take a back seat as he places his vocal across a keyboard based groove – his voice every bit as strong as his more famous peers.  As a piece of music, this uses all the hallmarks of classic melodic rock – the featured guitar solo providing another high point, while the clear separation between guitar, keyboard and voice allows Slamer’s almost faultless production a chance to really shine.  In a similar vein, ‘The Reason Why’ showcases perfect performances from Ousey and band – the riffs and harmonies peaking in a great AOR chorus, topped yet again by a immaculate guitar solo, brimming with huge notes.  Looking beyond melodic rock’s well worn (but still well loved 80s hits), this is a good example of why some people still love what is an often derided musical genre.  ‘Rhyme & Reason’ is a great album all round, but this track is just fantastic.

Almost everything involving Mike Slamer is melodic rock gold, and this album is no exception.  Although most of Chris Ousey’s output is of a reasonably high standard, parts of ‘Rhyme & Reason’ are a cut above, and certainly far sharper than a lot of the post-1997 Heartland releases.  While Ousey’s fans are sure to lap this up, there are enough guitar chops here to potentially reel in a fair number of Slamer and Denander devotees too.  With such a winning combination of musicians and some genuinely great songs (given a decent production job), ‘Rhyme & Reason’ is a melodic rock album that’s not to be missed.

November 2011

ISSA – The Storm

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Despite members of the melodic rock community proclaiming her Issa’s debut album ‘Sign of Angels’ a work of genius and suggesting the record sounded like a female fronted Journey, that wasn’t really accurate. Fact is, being Norwegian, huge chunks of Issa’s first album had a distinctly Scandinavian feel. There was nothing particularly wrong with that, but it just wasn’t American enough to gain Journey styled comparisons. Regardless of Issa’s best efforts, the bulk of that album’s material was solid, but often unremarkable – certainly not really “genius” by most people’s standards.

It would be wrong to suggest Issa had broken any new ground with her second record, ‘The Storm’ – it’s still loaded with some very predictable melodic rock chops – but the record has a distinctly more American feel at times. More importantly, she’s contributed to the song writing and – perhaps as a direct result – sounds more at ease vocally. Although not as sharp as those from a classic Survivor album, for example, the production values (courtesy of Daniel Flores) are also superior to the slightly muddy dynamics present on Issa’s debut release. Each of these factors make ‘The Storm’ an infinitely more enjoyable listening experience.

‘Looking For Love’ is a strong opening statement: David Siviland’s rhythm guitars have a pleasing soft metal choppiness over which Issa’s vocal is strong. An extra sense of depth is provided by a pompy keyboard line throughout which is perfectly judged rhythmically, though perhaps the squealy 70s style solo could have been avoided. Overall, it’s a decent opener, but it’s the softer bridge section and featured guitar solo (courtesy of Work of Art man Robert Sall) which lends the listener to believe this is only the beginning and, perhaps, ‘The Storm’ has even better material up its sleeve. ‘Please Hold On’ cements such theories, pushing things into slightly more American sounding 80s hard rock territory. Issa takes this number and pulls the best from its vocal – particularly on a classic sounding chorus. Many of you will have hundreds of songs in your AOR collections which achieve similar results – but when those songs are as good as this, there’s always room for one more! As before, Siviland provides a suitable amount of musical meatiness in the guitar department; this time around, though, he’s totally outshone by Daniel Flores on the keyboards, whose work echoes many 80s classics with his tinkling and rather bell-like accompaniments. Those keyboards alone would be enough to remind you all of melodic rock’s glory years, but a predictably perfect key change for the last chorus just adds to the goodness, making this one of the album’s essential tracks.

The intro on the title cut is lovely: the guitars ring with an absolute clarity, while the piano also adds a great deal of charm to a very 80s mood. When the drums kick in, they do not dominate – instead settling for providing a suitable backline, thus allowing the choppy guitars carry most of the tune. Compared with a few of the album’s choicest cuts, the chorus here is weaker and as the number progresses, a slightly cheesier mood doesn’t quite live up to the intro’s great promise. Still, it’s not a dud by any means – but it certainly could have been better. Moving things into a rockier mood, ‘You’re Making Me’ is slightly pompy – driven by a pounding bass and reasonable guitar riff. Issa proves here she’s as adept at rockier outings as she is the more dramatic offerings. Overall, it’s more in keeping with some of the material from ‘Sign of Angels’ and is a little more throwaway, but it’s given a lift by the presence of Christopher Vetter on lead guitar who offers up a more than commendable solo spot. ‘Two Hearts’ is slightly more Scandinavian sounding once again; this has much to do with its being penned for Issa by Xorigin’s Johannes Stole and Daniel Palmquist. What it offers musically is something hugely melodic – a number loaded with twin guitar harmonies and another big chorus. The mid-paced approach will likely appeal to a lot of melodic rock fans; Issa is in good form and even though her band don’t get to show themselves off as much here as on some of the other cuts, it has to be said that Palmquist’s lead guitar work – the solo in particular – is cracking.

‘Too Late For Love’ runs through many of the usual clichés, but is well arranged with a strong vocal pitched against clean guitar work. A harmony-filled chorus carries itself reasonably well, although it is perhaps not quite as strong as it ought to have been. You know what to expect and, although it’s far from a let-down, it shouldn’t have just settled for being a good track; with the level of quality shown elsewhere, this could have been great. With regards to power ballads, ‘Invincible’ is much better all round. Containing one of Issa’s best vocals it already starts with best foot forward, but a simple arrangement adds to its overall strength. The guitars are played with just enough crunchiness to put this track firmly in the rock bracket, yet extensive use of piano lends the softer passages an extra depth. Melodic rock by numbers it may be, but it’s spot on. Had this been written for any number of artists back in the 1980s, it could have been a hit. Alongside ‘Please Hold On’, this provides ample reason for investigating this release…even if you weren’t especially swayed by Issa’s first attempt.

It may not be edgy, but this album is well-crafted. It shows that Issa had a strong enough sense of vision to take the best elements of her previous work and make them work much better for her this time around. Granted, ‘The Storm’ isn’t as good as the female fronted AOR/melodic classics from the genre’s heyday – of which Robin Beck’s ‘Trouble or Nothin’, Heart’s ‘Bad Animals’ and Cher’s self-titled record are still at the absolute pinnacle – but on its own merits, Issa’s second outing is potentially one of the best examples of the genre offered in 2011.

November 2011