Artist: Work of Art
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 4/5
My heart hasn’t skipped a beat like this in a long time listening to an AOR album. Especially one from a freshly baked band. AOR is a spoiled child. It demands extreme hair-splitting in the studio. There are loads of details that call for a sophisticated approach, for fusing different layers and fragments into a multilayered, structured whole that’s subordinate to sonic and melodic perfection. Everything has to click together flawlessly, like fine watchmaking, for the thing to ignite!
Work Of Art are a trio. Swedes! Seriously. Who else but Scandinavians again. Red-hot out of the oven on the scene. Vocalist and keyboardist Lars Säfsund, guitarist Robert Sall and drummer Herman Furin. On their debut “Artwork” the band doesn’t hide its influences, first and foremost Toto, though some Journey tricks are noticeable too. The era of the albums “Toto IV”, “Isolation” and “Seventh One” is a pretty good yardstick for rough orientation. I’ll say it straight: the band isn’t gripped by an obsession with imitation. What you notice are just parallel nods to the aforementioned band. Mainly in the overall feel and the way the keyboards are used, the soul twists in the vocals, even the rhythms. Lars has a killer voice. Ideal for melodic singing. Expressive in every register. Soft when it needs to be subtle, sensual, fragile, commanding when it’s time to explode. An outstanding display! The band has put together an album with one-of-a-kind sound production. It’s crystal clear and well balanced. The vocals sit dead center, and where the riffing is pushed up, it keeps a slight edge over the keyboards filling the background throughout. The bass line’s melody is clear and distinct. The keyboards are totally “retro eighties”, yet the production sounds fashionable for today, with a bigger dose of lively pulse (especially in the guitars) compared to the filtered sound of the eighties. The drums carry tremendous sonic depth, a clean yet cannon-like booming tone.
These Swedes, too, are masters of forging melody. Hooks that grab your ears right from the first listen. Work Of Art are ruled by extraordinary order and discipline, which dictate a fatally attractive cohesion and communication between the individual building blocks of the music. Why Do I? is an outstanding opening AOR textbook. In fact, with all its perfection, the whole point of this album reveals itself right there. Maria is practically its twin; the songs could easily have swapped places at 1 and 2, which is why the band decided to leave no gap between them, just a barely noticeable transition on the synthesizers, a masterfully sly trick that fools the listener’s reason so much they don’t even notice a new song is already playing. Her Only Lie and Too Late are likewise just a new continuation of this excellent combination of punchy melodics between guitar and keyboards and phenomenal dynamics when it comes to the vocal delivery. Compactness without limits. The middle sections of the songs couldn’t blend into the foundation more beautifully than they do with Work Of Art. The guys have an outstanding sense of songwriting. Piece Of Mind and especially the harder Cover Me (the latter with one of the finest choruses on the record) confirm what’s already been said. As for the one and only real ballad “gem” on the record, in that typical Swedish melodic approach, Once In A Lifetime is a ballad that every AOR band would want on their album!
Flirting with Toto? The song Camelia. It’s backed by extra percussion (undercurrent rhythms), the guitar has a bit less distortion and more natural tone, and the vocals add a pinch of soul spice. One of the definite AOR highlights of the record is the song Whenever U Sleep. Toto gets summoned again in the pre-chorus, followed by a shift into proper Scandinavian AOR melodic rock with a poisonously listenable chorus of fatal attraction and high recognizability. Then there’s Lost Without Love, where the spirit of Journey sneaks in alongside the Toto tricks (the chorus), and the playful soul adventure Like No Other, leaning more on the keyboards.
As long as bands like Work Of Art keep writing songs like Cover Me or Whenever You Sleep, we’ve got no reason to fear we’ll be stuck forever with our noses buried in the cult AOR classics of the eighties. There’s no way in hell anything’s stopping the current Viking invasion. It started in the underground, which is where AOR has retreated to today as well. “Artwork” is yet another gorgeous AOR album, with no slip-ups, with songs of equal strength, perfect production and performance, a feel for the melodic polish of the compositions, and that truly catchy, bombastic dramatic atmosphere that only the power of AOR rock can serve up. Scandinavian style. AOR debut of the year?
Line-up
Lars Safsund – vocals, keyboards
Robert Sall – guitar
Herman Furin – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Andreas Olsson – bass guitar
Production
Lars Safsund
Track list
1. Why Do I
2. Maria
3. Camelia
4. Her Only Lie
5. Too Late
6. Whenever U Sleep
7. Once In A Lifetime
8. Peace Of Mind
9. Lost Without Your Love
10. Like No Other
11. Cover Me
12. One Hour
13. Camelia* (acoustic version)
*… bonus track
Album length: 56.15
Rating: 10/10
