Frontiers Records [Release date 18.11.22]
We all want to love this album because it’s Autograph. Even though they’re one-hit-wonders, and even though bassman Randy Rand is/was the only remaining original member.
(Rand took part in the recording sessions, but died before the album was released, RIP.)
It was well into this century before vocalist, Simon Daniels, guitarist, Jimi Bell and drummer Marc Wieland joined the band. Yet, that one hit, ‘Turn Up The Radio’, lives on in the minds and memories of all Melodic Rock lovers who remember the eighties – 1985 to be precise.
The lesson here of course is to forget 1985. This band is nothing like the Autograph we remember.
AOR/Melodic Rock of the era, whatever you want to call it, was never cerebral. The best stuff, the stuff that mattered, was emotionally urgent and immediate. The most human of sentiments formed the foundation that underpinned success.
With Beyond, there are too many tired lyrical ideas, too many wafer thin sentiments, and too many forgettable melodies to give the new material any real traction.
Only a few tracks stand out. The Beatlish ‘Heart Of Stone’; the contemporary sounding ‘Take Me Higher’, a mix of present day Def Leppard and Canadian alt rockers, Our Lady Peace. And thanks to some neat axework from Bell and a raspy, authoritative vocal from Daniels, ‘Everything’ just about avoids the drop.
In the end though, too much of the album sounds like a band trying to forge its own signature. **1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
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)
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