Artist: Dare
Released: 2009
Rating: 2.5/5
Darren Wharton has a knack for disappointing people lately, because nothing he does comes even close to what the band’s debut “Out Of The Silence” offered way back in 1989. Yes. That’s the album that’s a must in the collection of every true AOR/melodic rock fan. Darren Wharton has indeed put out a new album under the Dare banner, and the word “studio” is attached to it. You perk up your ears and your eyes pop out, because expectations shoot through the roof. “Arc Of The Dawn” continues the sound and songwriting direction of its predecessor “Beneath The Shining Water” (2004) and doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. Its main job is to preserve the natural sonic palette and the arrangement of the building blocks that make up the face of today’s Dare. In other words, something Dare turned to with their third album “Calm Before The Storm”.
Sadly, that face doesn’t radiate the same powerful sense of uniqueness as the debut “Out Of The Silence”, which was dedicated to the best that AOR could pull out of the legacy of the golden eighties. Despite my “whining”, every Dare album is recognizable, thanks to the distinctive timbre and delivery of Darren Warthon’s singing, and also thanks to the characteristic lead motifs, which don’t stray much in their melodic “curves” but keep Wharton recognizable as a musical artist.
The album itself is far from bad. It just lacks inspiration. Wharton is a seasoned, experienced musician, an elder statesman of the well-crafted rock melody. The album is polished to the last detail production-wise. The building blocks sit in a proper, harmonious leveling, where acoustics carry significant weight alongside the keyboards and electric guitar. The lead motifs work, the verse-chorus relationship holds together, and as a composition it keeps its credibility too.
Still, all we can talk about here is average. The album doesn’t leave a trace of what you came for. While listening, not a single song sticks in your ears, and the album quickly drops “through the stomach”, processed into intangible “sawdust”. Shelter From The Storm, the opening Dublin and Follow The River all work in the same range. Wharton is personal in the verses. For the British take on AOR, the vocal is warm and feeling, with a recognizable, mildly raspy accent, strikingly different. Much like the standout voice of his countryman John Wetton, but that’s another story.
But the album doesn’t “punch”, doesn’t captivate, doesn’t shock, doesn’t thrill. Dare have nothing new to say. What’s more, in their self-discrediting uninspired state they go so far as to recycle two classics from “Out Of The Silence”, King Of Spades and I Will Return. Stripped bare of the splendid “eighties” production and the dynamics’ juicy three-dimensional depth of sonic contrasts, the two songs in their new versions belong more in the rooms of late-night cabarets than on the stages of vast arenas, which is where they belonged in their one-of-a-kind originals. And the story of recycling and hiding behind unoriginality and lack of inspiration doesn’t end there. Darren Wharton continues with a dreamy acoustic version of the Thin Lizzy classic Emerald. Of course, a man in his later years has found enough time to let the memory of the golden days, when he was part of the team of the brilliant rock pioneer Phil Lynott, moisten his eye, but such an obvious outburst of pathos was hardly to be expected. In the arrangement structure, Richard Dews’s acoustic guitar approach does pull it up from the depths of the abyss, but the whole thing looks downright ridiculous when you call to mind the unique stamp of the rock potency of the Thin Lizzy original. And that’s not all either. There’s also The Flame, a big ballad penned by Cheap Trick, and it’s not hard to guess that Wharton’s vocal is more than suited to stand in for Robin Zander in the era of teased-up hairdos on the album “Luxury”.
Luckily, there’s the truly strong original ballad Still Waiting, where the face of Wharton’s present-day arrangement moves is capitalized on most successfully on the album. That Irish-Celtic touch shines through this song, deepened beyond the melody by Darrel Wharton’s feeling, melancholic vocal approach. In the rest of the album, too, Dare don’t shift into a noticeably higher gear. This is a mid-tempo to ballad-oriented lighter rock album, with a generous dose of detours toward the cosmetics of traditional “eighties” pop melodicism.
“Arc Of The Dawn” is a very personal album. And perhaps with this rating I’m doing an injustice to the character and work of Darrel Wharton by constantly dragging “Out Of The Silence” into the picture, but unfortunately I can’t pull out a different approach in this regard given the situation. Given the reputation of the band, which is built mostly on the unsurpassed debut “Out Of The Silence”, it would have been better if “Arc Of The Sun” had come out as Wharton’s solo studio album. The quality is definitely there, and I recommend that all AOR fans check the record out, but unfortunately it fails to leave a stronger impression or to step out of the shadow that the greatness of 1989, a year Dare will never repeat, still casts today.
Lineup
Darren Wharton – vocals, keyboards
Richard Dews – guitar
Kevin Whitehead – drums
Production
Darren Wharton
Tracklist
1. Dublin
2. Shelter In The Storm
3. Follow The River
4. King Of Spades
5. I Will Return
6. Emerald
7. When
8. The Flame
9. Still Waiting
10. Kiss The Rain
11. Remember
12. Circles
