NEWS:

New single by DARYL HALL called Talking To Myself is here. It's a cool funny song with some 80's vibe with some reminiscent of Kiss Of My List. The full album entitled Laughing Down Crying will be out September 27. Great song that you can listen here: http://soundcloud.com/user3122226/daryl-hall-talking-to-myself

NEWS:

For those who enjoy Alternative Metal or whatever you want to call it, the latest single by EVANESCNCE is called What You Want and is out now debuting at #68 on Billboard.                                                         No video yet but you can listen this song here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4oBp7GZtvo

ROULETTE - Better Late Than Never

Here we go with this kind of compilation by this band. ROULETTE is a band formed back in 85' releasing an album entitled Fool For Your Love in 88'. In 90' they changed their name to CHERRY RED and signed with CBS for an album that never was released, just a single called Only The Strong was edited. Time passes and in 2008 was released a compilation under the name Better Late Than Never with tracks from the first album and from the never released one... and three years later we have the remastered edition. Well, this is proper 80's rock album, full of keys, catchy choruses and well produced though provably you will need more than one listening to get into this album. The album opens with Only The Strong that is one of the highlights and could have been a hit but, though Thomas Lundgren is a good singer, i believe that a singer with a higher range would fit better with this track. The song opens with an a cappella intro that could have been avoided but grows into a fantastic song with a precious guitar solo. Run Girl is totally 80's with funny mood and keys everywhere while Better Late Than Never comes with heavier guitars and more early 90's production. The only ballad is called Evangeline, another highlight with beautiful chorus but once again is missing a higher octave singing. Lundgren vocals are rough and powerful and the weight of his voice is noticed in backing vocals all through the album so mellower backing vocal are missing. The album comes with two bonus tracks Waiting For The Heartache and I Do, in fact, the second one is one of my favorites . I Do is built on guitars and some kind of Hammond so because of the rawer sound fits better with Lundgren's voice.
The rest of the album keeps the 80's vibe full of keys that sometimes are a little strident.
In summary, this band have some similarities with NETWORK or RED DAWN but with more middle 80's sound.

Best Tracks (in order of preference):

Only The Strong
I Do
Evangeline
Run Girl
City Heat
Reachin' For You

This album is worth of 3.9 out of 5 ROCKS!!!

WORK OF ART - In Progress (Release: USA Aug 23th, 2011 - EU Aug 26th, 2011)

 

Here we go with the latest by this Swedish band and let me say that this album is exactly what the name of the band reads, a truly WORK OF ART. This album is what JOURNEY's Eclipse should have been. From the beggining to the end this album is full of energy, with magnificent keys and an astonishing production all surrounded by vocals of Lars Säfsund with no doubt one of the best vocalist of AOR scene.
The album opens with The Rain and please when you listen for the first time to this song turn up the volumen to 10 and let the music bang your ears. Is a shot to your brain with a fantastic mix of keys and guitars with Lars rocking like crazy, just listen where he reach just before the guitar solo. Backing vocals bring the warm touch and like all over the album are beautiful. Special atention to guitar solo and backing keys while the plucking... wow!!! The Nature Of The Game is another energetic track built on keys with catchy chorus and with a laid back before the guitar solo that make of this cut another highlight. Once Again is a beautiful mid-tempo introducing some backing piano and few doubled guitars while Never Love Again is catchy song that will reminds you of Higher Place from Arrival by JOURNEY. The Eye Of The Storm sometimes reminds of Who Cries Now by UNRULY CHILD but much more melodic and with fantastic backing vocals while Lars go as high as Mark Free could reach. Now we jump to Castaway the only song with acoustic guitar into and with a rawer sound though chorus is melodic with awesome backing vocals. Fall Down have some reminiscent of TOTO as One Step Away that could perfectly fit in The Seventh One.
The rest of the album keeps the same energetic vibe with the exception of Untill You Believe a precious mid-tempo that is another gem in this album.
In summary, one of the albums of the year with fantastic songs and production, there's no weak track  but the only thing with this album is that some cuts could sound too similar though it doesn't matter much because of the quality of all songs. If the music world were as it should be this album should be released by Sony an become a millions seller.

More info: http://www.myspace.com/musicofworkofart

Best tracks (in order of preference):

The Rain

Castaway

Emilie

Nature Of The Game

Until You Believe

This album is worth of 4.8 out of 5 ROCKS!!!

Charts:

SWE # 30

The Great Fall (official video):

NEWS:

BOSTON's new album almost finished. I've been waiting for this news for a long long time, i'm a big fan of this band, actually the first album i owned was the debut album by BOSTON back in 76... i was just a kid. The most impressive is that Brad Delp's vocals will be in parts of the album but the sad news are that there will be various lead singers in this album. I believe that BOSTON should be a one single vocalist band and i'm sure that Tommy DeCarlo is the right one but it seems that Tom Scholz has decided to take another direction. Anyway, Michael Sweet is out of the recording sessions... and we are delighted.