Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: 3/18/2022
Production: FM
Album length: 53.52 min
Genre: AOR
Rating: 9.0/10
FM don’t need much of an introduction. Back in full swing since 2009, the band – formed in 1984 and considered a leading light of the British AOR scene of the eighties – is returning to the stage with a new album, and in less than two years at that. Once again, FM handled the entire production all by themselves.
They’ve written just under 54 minutes of new music across eleven new tracks. “Thirteen” is yet another album that confirms FM as a living musical relic, frozen in time and space. The time and space of the eighties. In fact, the only thing that gives the band’s new releases a modern touch is the evolution of studio technology; otherwise, hanging out with FM’s music means hanging out directly with times that are no more, with the days when AOR was a hot genre trend that regularly shook up the world’s charts and was a staple of the playlists of, among others, the biggest radio stations on the planet.
Everything is back in its place. Also on “Thirteen” – the band’s thirteenth album. Right where it should be. Steve Overland stays unshakable with his velvety vocals. Like good old wine. He hasn’t changed one bit if you look all the way back to the debut “Indiscreet” (1986). In fact, there are no major differences between the musical substance of the new album and the past ones. Especially the last four. But. The production. The new album sounds more retro, or closer to the sonic picture of the FM albums that came out in the eighties. It sounds a touch more polished, and interestingly enough, synthesizers are often the dominant part of the keyboard arrangements. That’s no surprise, but given that FM have usually backed up their recent albums with the sound of Hammond organs too, especially when they needed to contrast the guitar phrasing, it’s a pleasant deviation, one that lets us say “Thirteen” is at least sonically different, even if it uses the same form of songwriting and arranging the band’s own material. It’s actually interesting that the band decided to bring back this old sonic screw again. That’s why “Thirteen” sounds especially retro, or closer to the sonic picture of the eighties FM albums than a few of the previous ones.
Once again the band hasn’t missed a single shot in the songwriting. Once again there’s a string of mighty, anthemic AOR marches that grab you the moment you hear them. Everything is in its place. Backing vocal harmonies that deepen the atmospheric contrasts and amp up the bombastic payoff of the record. Once again there’s a pile of small modulations, defined by detailed ‘mid-eight’ sections full of fascinating solos. The songs have that graduated atmospheric hunger as they grow from verse through pre-chorus into chorus. This is where “Thirteen” once more develops a distinct flow between songs, every one of which hits its mood peak in the subtly seductive catchiness of the chorus melodies.
The lively phrasing and the production leaps between songs, which draw clear, charismatic contrasts between them, add up to a fascinating dynamic that keeps the listener glued. The album rides on the wings of relentless AOR bombast and pomp. It doesn’t get more authentic than this. Considering that FM in 2022 are playing in almost the identical lineup as in the eighties – only the slightly younger Jim Kirkpatrick has been a new member since 2008, and even he brilliantly got on the same page with the philosophy of AOR music, FM-recipe style, long ago – it’s clear that “Thirteen” too is something only FM could pull off. Today their uniqueness is all the more obvious, since only a handful of their eighties contemporaries are still around. But those that are, are stubborn and uncompromising. And FM remain part of that bunch that don’t know how to, and simply can’t, run dry. Creatively, not by a long shot. And that’s good. May it stay that way.
Picking the favorites from “Thirteen” is entirely up to you. All I’ll tell you is that from the first second to the last, the album is a phenomenal AOR treat. You’re listening to a rock album that combines elements of hard rock, blues, and even metal, only with the sound subtly crossed with the pop (and soul) rhetoric of the eighties. FM do this so subtly on “Thirteen” that someone who didn’t live through those times wouldn’t even grasp it. And they don’t even need to. The music speaks for itself.
So FM remain musical fossils worthy of all respect, staying faithful to an archaic genre whose recipe they perfected long ago to unsurpassable heights. The thirteenth FM album confirms it directly, too.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Shaking The Tree
2. Waiting On Love
3. Talk Is Cheap
4. Turn This Car Around
5. Love And War
6. Long Road Home
7. Be Lucky
8. Every Man Needs A Woman
9. Just Got Started
10. Fight Fire With Fire
11. Be True To Yourself
Lineup:
Steve Overland – vocals, guitar
Merv Goldsworthy – bass
Pete Jupp – drums
Jem Davis – keyboards
Jim Kirkpatrick – guitar
