Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: August 10, 2018
Production: Airrace
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock / Hard Rock
Sometimes it’s a real drag to rehash old stories, but with Airrace there’s sadly no way around it. The gaps between their albums are just too long. They last an eternity. This is a band that formed in the early eighties, kicked up quite a bit of dust with an excellent studio debut, »Shaft Of Light« (1984), and landed a breakthrough support slot, opening shows for the likes of Meat Loaf, AC/DC and even Queen, among others. Sadly, the story ended in 1985, and Airrace stayed in total hibernation until 2011, when the comeback »Back to the Start« came out. »Back to the Start« was recorded with a lineup pretty similar to the eighties one, but more important than that was the fact that it was a superb comeback that found a credible link to the eighties. Then everything went quiet again and every trace of Airrace vanished. Still, the band’s main driving force, guitarist Laurie Mansworth, never lost the drive or the hope, especially after the label Frontiers Music Srl reissued the band’s debut album »Shaft of Light« in 2014, for the 30th anniversary of its first release. That’s how Airrace was revived in a completely changed, i.e. refreshed, lineup. In August 2018 that lineup finally managed to push out the band’s third studio album, »Untold Stiores«, which is once again an exceptionally high-quality piece of work.
»Untold Stories« is really everything that stands behind the Airrace name (including the two previous studio albums). It managed to hit the main goal: it’s a credible successor to both predecessors. The band packed it with 11 brand-new songs that shine with an exceptionally colorful arrangement, an organically dense and lively production, and endlessly inventive starting ideas for the phrasing itself. You can hear “everything” on it, and over it all hovers the polished, distinctive sound of a band that still owes the most thanks to its inspiration from seventies rock acts like Deep Purple, Whitesnake, The Sweet, Foreigner and Boston. At the same time, when it comes to shaping the musicality and the incredible catchiness (the choruses), Airrace know how to bring in a perfectionism and an aesthetic that (immodestly put) is comparable to the perfectionism and brilliance of someone like E.L.O. The album doesn’t chase the essence of the eighties, nor that “obligatory” link to its predecessor »Back to the Start«. Because Laurie Mansworth follows their own rules of the “game,” »Untold Stories« is in every way an Airrace album, one that brings an evolutionary, maturity-driven step up, which the band reaches in an entirely natural way. In that sense, the debut »Shaft Of Light« and the predecessor »Back to the Start« are stylistically more closely tied together, while the new »Untold Stories« offers an exceptionally appealing variety of ideas and atmosphere, in which Airrace did a great job trying out several recipes that rock and roll brought to the scene in the seventies. In that sense, refreshing the lineup was practically a must, since Mansworth, as the chief songwriter, got completely free rein. Adam Payne is the new singer, and he fits what the new arrangements need incredibly well. He’s an incredibly melodic yet authoritative vocalist, with a gorgeous balance in his delivery between explosiveness and sophistication, which lets him work “soul” flavors into the mix. On the excellent Innocence, his voice in the highest registers even brings to mind Michael Sweet (Stryper).
The pairing of Mansworth and new keyboardist Linda Kelsey Foster is incredibly well judged, as the opening Running Out Of Time already makes clear, with a pompous keyboard intro that grabs your attention right away, followed by an amazingly balanced dialogue between punchy guitar phrasing and keyboards, which coaxes out that retro-sounding sentiment of AOR aesthetics, even though with the new Airrace you can by no means talk about AOR purism. The atmospheric peaks, as expected, are taken by the hypersensitively fermented musical catchiness of the singable choruses, which often practically burst with bombast (Running Out Of Time, Eyes Like Ice, the excellent half-ballad Summer Rain, or the pop-charisma-dressed New Skin). The vibrant moods are boosted by the integration of vocal harmonies, which AIrrace master in their arrangements.
It’s hard to find any minus on this extremely polished rock and roll record with its honed charisma. It’s exceptionally detailed. From the incredibly refined guitar playing of Laurie Mansworth, who, alongside seriously juicy solos, slips extra guitar embellishments into the passages at several points in individual songs, to the top-notch vocal execution of Adam Payne, and the already mentioned bombastic figures of the crafty song arrangements.
»Untold Stories« is considered one of the best hard rock releases of 2018, or AOR too, if you like. With it, Airirace bridge the influential seventies with incredible juiciness, add a nostalgic AOR flirt from the eighties, and fuse the two into a one-of-a-kind charisma all their own. Only the third album of the band’s career, and all the more concise and exceptionally accomplished for it. Let’s hope Mansworth has found stability with the new crew and that we won’t have to wait too long for the band’s next studio album.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Running Out Of Time
2. Innocent
3. Eyes Like Ice
4. Different But The Same
5. New Skin
6. Lost
7. Love Is Love
8. Men From The Boys
9. Summer Rain
10. Come With Us
11. Here It Comes
Lineup:
Adam Payne – vocals
Laurie Mansworth – guitar
Linda Kelsey Foster – keyboards
Rocky Newton – bass
Dhani Mansworth- drums
