Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Year of release: 2011
Album length: 42.27
Production: Airrace
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock / Hard Rock
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In the rock world, Airrace are known mostly as the launchpad for Jason Bonham, where the son of Led Zeppelin’s legendary drummer John Bonham kicked off his music career. Those in the know will tell you the band was once highly regarded in melodic rock circles. Airrace released their debut album “Shaft of Light” in October 1984, and the pages of music magazines practically buckled under the weight of the superlatives the freshly released studio debut collected in reviews. The strong label backing behind Airrace’s hot, fashionable rock style back then is also confirmed by the choice of Beau Hill at the producer’s helm (Ratt, Winger, Fiona…). Despite the positive reception and shows with giants like AC/DC, Queen and Meat Loaf, Airrace evidently didn’t take the whole thing seriously enough and soon, in the summer of 1985 to be exact, they called it quits.
“Back To The Start” is exactly what the album title promises: a continuation from where “Shaft Of Light” left off. And the new album sounds like it was written, recorded and released in 1985, not 2011. That also points to the fact that the band revived and reactivated old, long-matured musical ideas for the new record, since they show remarkable structural variety from song to song, and the album as a whole is consequently full of movement, with a highly vibrant dynamic and plenty of different moods. The band carried over the entire essence it embodied during its short-lived existence in the mid-eighties. The songwriting style, the arrangements, the production, the feel of a live album, as if the band had played a concert and recorded it in the studio, which these days only rock dinosaurs like Uriah Heep, Journey, Foreigner and Deep Purple still pull off when they tackle their studio work. That feeling of “Back To The Start” being played as a studio concert is the first solid proof that even if you’d never read a word about Airrace before sticking the new album in your CD player, it’s obvious that what’s spinning inside is the real deal from the good old rock school. As for the new production, it’s far wiser and more mature, and it confirms the band’s tremendous experience. It captured the spirit of the eighties in full and dressed it in a lively, dynamic, juicy and rich sonic outfit.
Two Of A Kind is a direct mix of quips drawn from the pioneering rock bands of the second half of the seventies. The decorative harmonized guitar motif over the lead phrase revives the production pioneering of Boston, the backing vocal harmonies in the chorus smell right in tune with the cues laid down by Uriah Heep or The Sweet, while Keith Murrell throughout the song (especially in the chorus) conjures up an erogenously potent feel that doesn’t hide its flirtation with the energy of Foreigner (the recent ones, too). These elements show up across the album in various doses, wisely worked into the cores of the songs, stoking and strengthening their moods and atmosphere.
Further in, it’s interesting how some motifs recall classic riffs from rock and heavy metal. This isn’t copying; the Airrace guys don’t need that. It’s simply a recap of the phenomenon of music that comes from the band members’ very DNA and their “upbringing” on the heavy rock bands of the second half of the seventies. The instrumental middle section of Better Believe It is underpinned by a guitar phrase that bears an unmistakable structural resemblance to the guitar phrase of Strong Arm Of The Law by Saxon, though the song itself has nothing to do with Saxon.
Of course, the album doesn’t lack AOR catchiness; it’s soaked in it, sometimes more, sometimes less. In terms of purism, three tracks stand out. The album opener Keep On Going, an effectively blended combination of rock punch and pompous melody lifted from the Journey recipe, is recapitalized even more effectively later on the album with the dramatic So Long, as well as in the closing What More Do You Want From Me?, where Airrace grab hold of the most noticeable levers of old-school synth sounds from the late seventies, the kind used long ago by bands like Triumph, April Wine, Trillion, Angel,….
Keith Murrell is an interesting vocal combination: he embodies the high melodic flexibility of Steve Perry (Journey), but adds a pinch of improvisation, in terms of energy occasionally edging close to the excellence of Glenn Hughes. The sweetly catchy Call Me Anytime, where Keith makes the most of that fine sense for adding pinches of soul improvisation, sounds at first listen as if Glenn Hughes had landed in the middle of a band that merges members of The Sweet and Foreigner, especially thanks to the venomously catchy piano that takes the lead over the guitar phrase.
The comeback with “Back To The Start” recalls the power and unbreakable charisma of today’s Foreigner, who released their one-of-a-kind comeback album “Cant’ Slow Down” in 2009. The songs have a clear definition of expression and tremendous motif variety. Every one of them has a remarkable charisma and a clearly emphasized accent of its own. No cosmetic makeup here, Airrace don’t love overcomplicating things, all that counts is the feeling of aliveness, which convinces in every single second of this album. It’s an album whose good 42 minutes fly by before you even realize it. And once they’re done, you hit “play” on the CD player again without a second thought. An album that clearly hints it’ll pass the test of time with ease. We waited 27 years for it. Times have changed, so only listeners who lived out their “teenage” years in the mid-eighties will really cherish it. Let’s hope Airrace get an invite from Foreigner to open for them on a future European tour. The material on “Back To The Start” simply has to ring out on European stages!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Keep On Going
2. Two Of A Kind
3. When Baby
4. Call Me Anytime
5. So Long
6. Back To Start
7. Just One Kiss
8. Wrong Way Out
9. One Step Ahead
10. Enough Of Your Loving
11. Better Believe It
12. What More Do You Want From Me?
Line-up:
Keith Murrell – vocals
Laurie Mansworth – guitar
Dean Howard – guitar
Chris Williams – keyboards
Jim Reid – bass
Simon Dawson – drums
