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Frontiers [Release date : 04.08.23]
Only one solo album under his belt, yet Kent Hilli seems to have been around forever. Three studio albums with Perfect Plan, two Restless Spirits’ albums and a stint fronting legendary melodic rock band, Giant. All suggest a well established career, still in the ascendant.
Hilli’s love of AOR rings loud and clear on this second solo release, Nothing Left To Lose. There’s quite a cast, worth looking at before we consider the music:
The album is co-produced by Jimmy (One Desire) Westerlund and Ulrick Lonnqvuist, a vastly experienced musician who’s worked with many.
Pete Alpenborg, Rick Altzi, Mike Palace, Jimmy Hedlund and Kristian Fyhr all participate in one way or another.
So, Nothing Left To Lose has all the credentials.
Does it work? No question, this is Hilli’s best yet, infinitely superior to the material on his Giant album.
The running order is front loaded with the immediately accessible material. There are welcome shades and echoes of Don Henley in opener, ‘Too Young’. They give the song some genuine character rather than being just another AOR song, modelled on the genre’s past glories, even one as good as this.
Westerlund’s production is busy, but crystal clear, great sonic separation, you can hear every note, every sound in the music’s rise and fall, and everything fits.
You can hear his influence especially on the epic melodic rock of the title track. Hilli’s vocal, imbued with the same sense of heroism and escape as emoted by the late Jimi Jamison, gives Westerlund’s music a satisfying, grown up resonance.
Everywhere you look you find winning blends of sophisticated melodic rock.
Again, you can hear the growing maturity in Hilli’s voice on ‘Does He Love Like Me’, a sultry and soulful dancefloor filler. And again, on ‘Everytime I Go Away’, a powerful, chest beating love song that avoids the big ballad cliché.
For Hilli, the only way is up. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
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