Somewhere behind the retro childrens’ book artwork and drab brown packaging, Stephen Lawrenson delivers ten pieces of relatively sunny adult power pop on his debut release for Kool Kat. Fans of the genre will undoubtedly have fun in spotting the dozens of influences this particular singer-songwriter has twisted into his own vision, but while, by the time of its closing notes, ‘Obscuriosity’ has found its feet to become a great piece of work, it doesn’t actually start off too impressively…
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
PLAYER – Too Many Reasons
Those of a certain age should already be familiar with some of Player’s previous work, since the pop-rockers scored a huge US hit in 1978 with ‘Baby Come Back’, a track which even entered the UK chart peaking just inside the top 40. In their 70s heyday, the band toured with Heart, Boz Scaggs and even scored a place as support band for the slightly worse-for-wear Eric Clapton on his ‘Slowhand’ tour.
DIAMOND DAWN – Overdrive
Sometimes it feels as if half of Sweden were raised on Journey and Survivor and in AOR terms have chosen to keep the dream alive (to borrow a phrase from an old Now & Then Records sampler) with their own punchy melodic rock bands. For those who’ve enjoyed the melodic rock and AOR over several decades, quite understandably, many of these bands have felt somewhat “second division” (and most of those in turn have seemingly signed to Escape Music). There have, however, been a couple of bands whose early works could stand proudly against releases from AOR’s eighties heyday. Both Work Of Art and Wigelius have wowed genre buffs with their near perfect records between 2010 and 2012; joining them in the early part of 2013 is Gothenberg’s Diamond Dawn, whose debut release ‘Overdrive’ is rather splendid.
SWINGIN’ UTTERS – Poorly Formed
Branching out from their street punk beginnings, over the course of several albums, Swingin’ Utters have constantly evolved. They may have become more commercial with the passing years, but if 2013’s ‘Poorly Formed’ tells us anything, it is that vocalist Johnny Bonnel and company know how to pen potentially very memorable tunes. Crashing through fourteen tracks in approximately half an hour, a couple of one-line choruses aside, ‘Poorly Formed’ is anything but. Its running time may be slightly lean – the album seeming to zip by in the blink of an eye – and it may be more varied than some of their past works, but, most importantly, there’s absolutely no filler.
I AM I – Event Horizon
I Am I is a band fronted by former Dragonforce mouthpiece ZP Theart and featuring former Quireboys/The Union drummer Phil Martini (aka Phil Martin). ‘Event Horizon’, their self-released debut, isn’t just a re-tread of Dragonforce works. With this band, Theart leans, in theory, towards something more melodic, offering huge European sounding power/pomp metal, given a huge send off in the production department by Masterplan man Roland Grapow. With those hard facts out of the way, some of you have already stopped reading, since Grapow’s unrelenting production style combined with Theart’s mere presence means that I Am I are unlikely to appeal to an audience outside of this band’s particular power metal subgenre.