DEPARTURE – Hitch A Ride

Escape Music 20120 www.escape-music.com

Album number four from Departure and their first since 2001′s excellent pomp rocker ‘Corporate Wheel’. It also marks the fourth vocalist for the band, step forward Andi Kravljacea of Silent Call. Main man Mike Walsh is still at the helm on guitars/keys/production/songwriting with Martin Kronlund helping out on mixing and mastering.

Two big standouts are the pop rock fun of ‘LuvSick’ and ‘Waiting For The Rain To Come’ that builds nicely and the church organ gives the songs an almost Boston like vibe. Bon Jovi best call his lawyers as the ballad ‘Without You’ sounds uncannily like them, so much so I thought it was a Bon Jovi cover. Good stuff though. ‘Travel Through Time’ hints at the old pomp rock sound but ‘Fly’ sounds a little to much like hard rock by numbers, the same goes for ‘Outside Looking In’.

Not a bad album but disappointing compared to their previous albums as they have moved away from their pomp rock to a Scandi rock sound in much of the album. Fans of the band will doubtless be split on opinions and they may pick up some new fans with their more straight ahead melodic hard rock sound.

***1/2

Jason Ritchie

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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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)