Album review : ZELBO – In My Dreams
Frontiers [Release date 10.12.21]
Melodic Rock/AOR band, Zelbo is named for keyboard player and founding member, Dag Selboskar.
This relatively unknown Norwegian musician in fact has quite a pedigree. He debuted with the legendary Da Vinci. His DV bandmate, Bjorn Boge went on to form Street Legal with guitarist/producer, Ken Ingwersen (who produced In My Dreams). Selbosar joined them for a while in the mid nineties. He also contributed keys to the recent Memoria Avenue album on Frontiers.
In My Dreams is unashamed AOR. It’s one of those “best before 1989” albums, cut from the same cloth as Perfect Plan and Kent Hilli, two similar artists on the same label.
By definition then, none of these bands is groundbreaking. That’s not the intent…they’re not looking for the music to transcend its genre limitations. Each and every song is emblematic of an era. Perfect pastiche.
The sweet harmonising and tight interplay of the slickly melodic opening track, ‘In My Dreams’ whip up a strong, driven sense of yearning, establishing the mood.
That alluring sonic atmosphere is reinforced by the modestly graceful, elegantly simple ‘Phoenix Rising’ and ‘Small Town Girl’. Each has the same sprightly step as Work Of Art’s material, without perhaps reaching the same hooky pop heights.
The AOR pendulum swings way into Eighties’ Soft Rock territory with ‘Wild Young And Free’ and ‘Beautiful Flyaway’. There are memories of artists like Christopher Cross and Ambrosia buried in these grooves. Each track has a constant pulse, an AOR heartbeat that cleverly disguises the music’s lack of depth.
‘Fortune And Fame’ and ‘Heads Down’ carry a weightier punch, each suggesting that the band has been thumbing through a dog eared copy of Journey’s blueprint, sprinkling familiar musical phrases and riffs here and there, beefing up the sweet, lyrical melodic rock that is clearly the band’s default position.
With In My Dreams, Zelbo capture the past, and present it in primary musical colours. Even when you’re joining the dots, you can create an attractive picture. ***1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024
ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)
Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)
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