Artist: Pleasure Dome
Label: Escape Music
Released: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Pleasure Dome is a new band on the scene, but it’s made up of seasoned old foxes of melodic hard rock. The name Ted Poley (vocals, Danger Danger) alone gets enough mouths watering that every true-blue rocker has to give this thing a spin. The band’s driving force is keyboardist Charlie Calv, and Pleasure Dome isn’t his first team-up with Ted Poley. They’d already joined forces before in a project called Skin Tag. Drummer John Hummel, who this time rules the realm of the drums, is a proper touring drummer and a hot name for live runs with all kinds of bands. Just how much the guy is respected was confirmed by the recent offer of his services on the Black Market Radio tour, the band of Peter Cornell, brother of former Soundgarden man Chris Cornell.
The debut “For Your Personal Amusement” serves up 10 tracks, not counting the minute-and-a-half intro and the closing outro. The guys love to bounce back and forth between hard rock and melodic pop rock. The semi-acoustic ballad Praying For A Miracle belongs squarely in the latter mold, and Poley’s vocals sink into it beautifully. In general, the singer is the one who stamps the songs with their special character, with his trademark one-of-a-kind timbre and a vocal approach with that velvety touch, ideal for any excursion into AOR waters. The songs are varied and make for a contrasting, very lively experience, but in the end that’s not enough for “For Your Personal Amusement” to leave a lasting mark on the listener. The production creates an impressive contrast between the rhythm section (the deep, punchy hits and the clean yet cannon-like clarity of the drums especially stand out), the lively guitar riffs and, of course, Poley’s vocals. After the short intro, the album leaps into the funky, groovy rhythm of Trapped, carries on in AOR fashion with One And Only, where Poley’s distinctive voice fires up the mood even more, and soon we run into the dark hard rocker The Aura That Surrounds You, where the guys nicely build up the drama, peaking in the chorus.
In the second half the album loses its spark. Every band apparently needs its own “Kashmir/Stargazer” these days, and sixth track in a row Always Tomorrow is no exception, with the riff almost repeated in the very next song, Love Is A Game, which comes off a bit funny and which the guys try to cover up by weaving a female vocal into the chorus. It makes for a really neat contrast with Poley’s voice. From here until almost the end of the album, the guys keep a guest female vocalist around for duets with Ted Poley. Seems Like A Dream is an almost psychedelic ballad whose placement is a bit of a surprise, but it’s a wildly inventive curveball that breaks up the hard rock predictability of Always Tomorrow and Love Is A Game before it. I Won’t Cry is a pretty predictable power ballad that goes down too quickly and leaves no mark. Some wit returns in the mid-tempo dark rocker Return to Zero, while the hard rocker (Who Will) Save The Planet thankfully brings the album back up to the level of the opening, thanks to Poley’s excellent vocals, which once again conjure up a properly dramatic atmosphere.
The guys have of course wrapped all the riffs in a firm embrace of keyboards, which keeps the tragic mood at an enviable level, though in Pleasure Dome’s case the songs aren’t of equal strength. The start is strong, through the first five tracks, but then the thing gets a bit watered down, thanks to leaning on already-worn-out motifs. By the end the band manages to bring the album back to its opening level. So, an album with ups and downs in quality. What saves it is the excellent production, the relatively short songs and Poley’s unique vocals, which keep this album afloat enough that we can still call it an average to above-average hard rock record.
Lineup
Ted Poley – vocals
David Tsien – guitar
Charlie Calv – keyboards
Ed Avila – bass
John Hummel – drums
Production
Charlie Calv
Tracklist
1. For Your Personal Amusement (1:30)
2. Trapped (4:07)
3. One & Only (4:20)
4. The Aura That Surrounds You (3:42)
5. Praying for a Miracle (3:11)
6. Always Tomorrow (4:10)
7. Love Is a Game (3:43)
8. Seems Like a Dream (3:46)
9. I Won’t Cry (4:57)
10. Return to Zero (3:46)
11. (Who Will) Save the World (4:50)
12. For Your Personal Amusement (Reprise) (1:40)
Album length: 43.30
