Album review: SEVEN – 7

Escape Music www.escape-music.com [Out now]

Back in the late 80’s and into the early 90’s the AOR/melodic rock scene was thriving and record labels were signing up UK based acts like FM, Airrace, Little Angels, Dare and this band Seven were signed to Polydor.

TV presenter Philip Schofield even helped them out as he played their single on BBC Radio 1 and they toured with Richard Marx, Jason Donovan and, err, Brother Beyond. Sadly they were only signed for two singles and then they were dropped, until Pat Davey (bass/vocals) was working with Robert Hart on an album for Escape when the name Seven came up. The band was signed by Escape and here is the album! Oh and there are some top notch guest musicians lending a hand including Mike Slamer, Mr. Pomp Keyboards Mark Mangold (Touch/Drive, She Said), original FM keys player Didge Digital and Adam Wakeman.

This is one glorious throwback to those classic late 80’s AOR albums. Check out opener ‘Shoot To Kill’ that has lots of synths and tasty guitar riffs, with an immense chorus. This song and the next one, ‘Inside Love’ reminded me of latter day Saga, mainly as the keys/synths take the lead in a lot of the melodies.

There are a couple of ballads, most notable being ‘Diana’ whilst the hard rock of ‘Headlines’ reminded me of Foreigner around the time of their ‘Inside Information’ album. In fact vocalist Mick Devine sounds a lot like Lou Gramm on this song.

Another fine release from Escape and perfect for those after an 80’s AOR fix with a modern production. If you like bands like FM (80’s era), Airrace and late 80’s Foreigner this album should be heading for your music collection. ****

Review by Jason Ritchie

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)