label: Frontiers Music Srl.
release date: 14.09.2018
production: Alessandro Del Vecchio
album length: 43:58
rating: 8.5 / 10
No two ways about it. One of the most distinctive vocalists the eighties ever gave us, a voice whose charisma and expressiveness laid some of the key foundations of AOR and its popularity back in the day, is stepping up again this year with a new album. Not one, but two, in fact. We’re talking about Steve Overland, singer of the legendary British AOR heavyweights FM, with whom he also put out a new studio album this year, but that’s not all. Some time ago he joined forces with the outstanding Swedish multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Robert Sall (Work Of Art, W.E.T.). That’s how the project Groundbreaker was born, and it managed to release a self-titled studio debut in that very same year. Of course, behind the birth of this project there’s plenty of appetite, plus the enthusiasm of the Italian label Frotntiers Records, which is thus “to blame” for this new, incredibly seductive “melodic rock” (retro AOR) theater.
Anyone who knows FM, the Shadowman project or Overland’s solo career, and who’s also at home with the “Scandinavian school” of AOR revivalism (Work Of Art, Houston), knows exactly what to expect from the album “Grondbreaker”. Steve is a singer who never steps out of his own skin, not even by a millimeter. He has that incredible soul and pop smoothness that has always been one of the key elements defining the strong artistic identity of every album he’s sung on, including FM’s studio records. That means Robert Sall, who was mostly in charge of writing the songs (with neither Overland nor Frontiers’ jack-of-all-trades Alessandro Del Vecchio sitting on their hands), simply poured the ideas meant for the next Work Of Art album into Groundbreaker. Yep. “Groundbreaker” is easiest to describe as a kind of Work Of Art album, but with the FM singer on vocals.
“Groundbreaker” are, in other words, incredibly easygoing when it comes to baking with retro AOR rhetoric. The song arrangements sit closest to Work of Art, to eighties FM and to the Shadowman project, while the guitars aren’t as “sharpened” as on W.E.T., let alone Eclipse. “Groundbreaker” is an extremely skillfully written album. Or really, extremely skillfully “rewritten” and repackaged. Flawlessly recycled. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel and it doesn’t bring originality, but it stands behind everything it offers with incredible credibility. From the brilliant production and ultra-melodic catchiness to the seductive, highly vibrant atmospheres that peak in singalong choruses, to deftly placed key changes and polished mid-eight passages. The blankets of synth curtains sound like the eighties, their dialogue with the guitar is masterfully “balanced” and colors the songs effectively (through contrast). The vocal melodies are subtly harmonized with mid-register backing vocals. Everything a proper retro-sounding AOR album needs in modern times. There are eleven songs on the album, but there’s no noticeable dip in quality among them, they all stand equal, side by side. You’ll find your favorites yourself.
Like I said. An exceptionally solid and likable album with a true retro AOR sound, though it will reach only a narrow niche of melodic rock fans, which means that when we talk about this genre today, we’re really entering the “underground” of rock’n’roll. It’s a must-hear for the “surviving” fans of big pop aesthetics in rock’n’roll, that is, the AOR pioneering of bands led by Journey, Boston, Foreigner, Asia, Survivor and/or Night Ranger.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
track list:
1. Over My Shoulder
2. Will It Make You Love Me
3. Eighteen ‘Til I Die
4. Only Time Will Tell
5. Tonight
6. Standing Up For Love
7. Something Worth Fighting For
8. The Sound Of A Broken Heart
9. The First Time
10. The Days Of Our Life
11. The Way It Goes
lineup:
Steve Overland – vocals
Robert Sall – guitar
Nalley Pahlsson – bass guitar
Herman Furin – drums
guest musician:
Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards
