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AOR Boulevard Records (Release date 15.04.22)
Former Iconic Eye singer Jane Gould has assembled some impressive collaborations for her Forget-Me- Not project with the help of some key movers and shakers in the melodic rock world. Songwriters include the likes of Soren Kronqvist, Michael Palace and Steve Newman, the latter also producing and supplying many of the instruments.
‘Fire in Wonderland’ gets the album off in style with its washes of eighties keyboards, while ‘Darkness into Dawn’, less instant but more restrained, grows to be equally good with a great bridge and chorus. The Nigel Bailey penned ‘Dangerous’, while still melodic, is more guitar heavy, notably with a speedy solo from Stephen Chesney.
At times, her voice has that theatrical bent suited to show tunes and the ballad ‘For Both of Us’ is as a result a little saccharine for my tastes. That vocal style is also in evidence on ‘Maybe, I Believe’ and ‘Move Mountains With my Mind’ but the latter boasts great instrumentation with its stabbing keys before drums and guitar crash in.
The title track is one of the more average on show, along with the ballad ‘I Pretend’, but some of the album’s best moments come in the final third of the album. ‘Shoot For the Heart’ – an old Karen Lawrence cover for us AOR anoraks- starts in poppy fashion but boasts an interesting guitar melody and classy chorus, while ‘Time to Let Go’ reminds me of Robin Beck with a chorus written by Steve Newman, but which could have come from the pen of Diane Warren or Desmond Child.
‘Everytime I See Your Picture’ is the best of the ballads- an eighties ballad with power chords of the type it is easy to imagine boasting a video starring a windswept Bonnie Tyler or similar.
While the natural comparison to make is with Chez Kane who released an outstanding old-school album last year, Jane Gould’s work here is closer to pure AOR, with Witness and Robin Beck coming to mind, alongside elements of the pop rock of Belinda Carlisle and T’Pau.
The mid tempo ‘Don’t Be Afraid of Your Dreams’ brings a suitably classy end to an album which is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year so far. ****
Review by Andy Nathan
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