Boston’s self-titled debut album is rightly heralded as a melodic rock classic. The combination of Brad Delp’s soaring voice, a wall of vocal harmonies and the distinctive guitar work of Tom Scholz has allowed the album to (almost) transcend the ages. While it doesn’t necessarily sound timeless, it certainly still sounds like an album recorded some time after its mid-70s origins, such is its sharpness. The band’s next works (1978’s ‘Don’t Look Back’ and 1986’s ‘Third Stage’) are almost as good, thanks to Scholtz and his obsession with perfection. After a long delay, the band returned in the mid 90s for ‘Walk On’, a decent selection of pomp-driven songs with Orion vocalist Fran Cosmo doing a grand job of replacing Brad Delp on vocals. It mightn’t have quite been up there the Boston of ’76, but then it didn’t pretend to be – it was a good enough record in its own way. From this point on, very little was heard from the Boston camp until the release of ‘Corporate America’ (featuring both Delp and Cosmo alongside Sholz) in 2002. It was a record which gathered mixed reviews. Too much time had passed.
Tag Archives: frontiers records
ANGELICA – Thrive
Since this debut record from Angelica Rylin pays homage to her childhood heroes Robin Beck and Ann Wilson, it’ll come as no surprise that the album, therefore, ploughs a well-worn furrow of melodic rock. With Frontiers Records regular Daniel Flores handling production duties/drums/song-writing and other regulars Alessandro Del Vecchio and Robert Sall also having a hand in proceedings, the whole thing feels like an all-chums-together affair. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but obviously the combination of a familiar team and a rigid musical blueprint makes ‘Thrive’ feel wholly predictable. So, given that this album breaks absolutely no new musical ground whatsoever, why should you check out Angelica, when there is so much other rock music out there vying for your attention?
WHITE LION – Return Of The Pride
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, White Lion released a couple of great albums in ‘Pride’ and ‘Mane Attraction’. By more modern standards, the production on ‘Pride’ is a tiny bit trebly (okay, maybe a lot trebly), but it had the songs to back up any technical shortcomings. A couple of ‘Mane Attraction’s songs were noticeably weaker – and they even padded out the disc with a re-recording of ‘Broken Heart’ (the original can be found on their 1987 release ‘Fight To Survive), but in many ways, it was a perfect swansong. Vocalist Mike Tramp’s follow up project Freak Of Nature attracted a solid fan base, but the more alternative leanings in the band’s sound turned off some more “traditional” rock fans, leading to decline in record sales. His later solo album ‘Capricorn’ was more than decent, but by this point Tramp’s sales figures were practically non-existent compared to former glories. In that respect, it’s almost understandable as to why by 2008 Frontiers Records would want Tramp to release another White Lion album.
HAREM SCAREM – Mood Swings II
Almost any melodic rock fan will tell you that the first two Harem Scarem albums are classics. The band’s 1992 debut and ‘Mood Swings’ – their harder sounding follow up from 1993 – set out the Canadian outfit’s stall as a band to be reckoned with. Twenty years on from ‘Mood Swings’, someone in the Harem Scarem camp decided the best move to celebrate the milestone anniversary would be to re-record the songs…
FIND ME – Wings Of Love
Bringing together the talents of Robbie LeBlanc (Blanc Faces), Daniel Palmquist (Xorigin) and noted session drummer/engineer Daniel Flores, Find Me is a project with strong foundations. With a selection of songs written by Frontiers Records in-house regulars Allesandro Del Vecchio and Tom Wilson and contributions from Issa and Erik Mårtensson, the whole package is designed to be the AOR fans dream. Usually when such big ambitions are chased such projects falter, but almost everything about Find Me works excellently.