Album review: HOUSE OF SHAKIRA – Lint XXV

Frontiers [release date: 11.02.22]

Well, this is interesting… two richly textured remasters of House Of Shakira’s 1997 album, Lint.
It is a most unusual approach. To celebrate the album’s 25th Anniversary, the first disc is a remastered version of the original release, with (then new) vocalist Andreas Eklund. The second is a remastered alternative version with the band’s original singer, Michael Ericsson handling lead vocals.

They went with the “Eklund version” at the time.

Even now, 24 years later, it’s easy to remember the band’s bravura performance on Lint. It was an exciting attempt to re-invent the melodic rock genre after the first wave of Grunge had receded.

Brimful of punchy, melodic, hard hitting songs, the album made the fast growing online AOR media sit up and take notice.

From the tightly woven arrangements on CD1, and the compact, hermetically sealed harmonies of ‘Morning Over Morocco’ and the title track,’Lint’, to the satisfying chord and lyric counterpoise of ballad, ‘The Story Is The Same’, the songs sound amazingly intense and vibrant.

As has been observed many times since, Andreas Eklund’s vocals bear more than a passing resemblance to those of Tommy Shaw. It’s impossible not to compare his taut as a bowstring high harmonies to Shaw’s contribution on many of Styx’s and Damn Yankees’s better AOR/Pop tunes.

Eriksson’s singing makes a significant difference to the sound of the same material on CD2. His lighter timbre reduces the impact that the band and producer were clearly trying to achieve on Lint.

That said, his high harmonies are sweeter and more restrained. That allows him to lean back into songs like ‘Method Of Madness’, ‘Who’s Lying Now’ and ‘No.8′, giving the sentiments and the romantic elements room to catch hold.

You pays your money, and you takes your choice.

Vocalists to oneside, we shouldn’t lose sight of what this band achieved. Lint was a bold try at reprogramming the sound of an era, without going anywhere near the grunge bandwagon that attracted so many others. ****

review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

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)