Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: March 11, 2022
Production: Daniel Flores
Album length: 47.52 min
Genre: AOR/Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
Find Me, the melodic rock and AOR revival project fronted by vocalist Robbie Leblanc (Blanc Faces, ex-Fury) and Swedish multi-instrumentalist and producer Daniel Flores (The Murder Of My Sweet), is back with a new album with a somewhat quirky title, »Lightning In A Bottle«. It’s the project’s fourth studio album, and the main push behind it comes from the Italian label Frontiers Music Srl., which in its own way makes sure that the sharp songwriting chops of both players, along with Robbie LeBlanc’s vocal talent, even in the more mature stage of his musical career, don’t go unnoticed.
The musical direction of the new album follows its predecessor »Angels In Blue«, released in 2019. In other words, it’s AOR revival that will please eighties nostalgics as well as younger fans of the melodic side of rock, i.e. hard rock, which owes the most inspiration to the days when rock was commercially glued to pop all through the eighties, which is basically what today’s archaic AOR genre is built on.
Flores, originally a drummer (some of you may remember him from the excellent but unjustly overlooked Swedish progressive metallers Mind’s Eye), shows off his multi-instrumental talent on this Find Me album too. Most of the material on the new Find ME album was written by: Kristian Fyhr, Pete Alpenborg, Ulrick Lönnqvist, Marco Sfogli and Gui Oliver, while Alessandro Del Vecchio, naturally, had to double-check most of the little arrangement details when the tracks were being finalized. Two songs (Diana, Give My Heart) were contributed by members of the Swedish hard rock band Titan. Style-wise, the new album should appeal to fans of W.E.T., Palace, Work Of Art, Houston, Memoria Avenue, First Signal and the like, among others. Which means that, production-wise, it’s an updated, effectively modernized flirtation with the legacy of eighties AOR.
LeBlanc doesn’t disappoint with his vocal range and color, which fit the genre turf Find Me operate in like a glove. The legendary vocalist still has a wide range even in his later years, and he handles even the toughest moments without much trouble, when the vocal power has to be pushed from the mid and upper registers all the way to the very top.
The album strikes a pleasing production balance between the instruments, with skillful, deep contrasts, so the sonic picture is put to good use. Still, you can tell there’s no ‘sky-screaming guitar virtuoso’ on board, and the only thing you could miss here is a bit more liveliness from the guitars, which comes down mostly to the lack of guitar solos as well as harmonic embellishments. In that respect, the arrangements lean almost a little too heavily on synths and keyboards in general.
All things considered, »Lightning In a Bottle« keeps up the consistency of the previous four albums and brings pleasing variety and dynamics, even if it can’t surprise you anymore. It will certainly satisfy a handful of the most hardcore AOR devotees. At its core, it’s (once again) a very high-quality, ultra-musical and pompously catchy album, proving that Flores and LeBlanc, even from opposite sides of the Atlantic, work really well together time and time again.
Oh, right. It’s worth pointing out that the song Far From Over is a cover of the original written together by Frank Stallone and Vince DiCola. The original version of the track was used as part of the soundtrack to the 1983 film »Stayin’ Alive«. On the Find Me version, Vince DiCola himself guests on keyboards.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Survive
2. Far From Over
3. Sail Away
4. Back To You
5. Diana
6. Distant Echoes
7. Remember (It’s Me)
8. You And I
9. Under A Bad Sign
10. Give My Heart
11. On The Run
Lineup:
Robbie Lablanc – vocals, backing vocals
Daniel Flores – drums, bass, guitar, keyboards
Guest musicians:
Angelica Rylin – backing vocals on track 2
Michael Palace – guitar on track 2
Vince DiCola – keyboards on track 2
Rolf Pilotti – keyboards
Johny Trobro – bass
Fernando San Martin – percussion
