Label: Escape Music
Release date: 04/26/2019
Production: Lonerider
Album length: 44.56 min
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock / Hard Rock
Lonerider is a lineup made up of Steve Overland (FM, Shadowman, Overland, Groundbreaker,…), Chris Childs (Tyketto, Thunder, Shadowman), Steve Morris (Heartland, Shadowman, Ian Gillan Band) and Simon Kirke (Bad Company, Free). The fifth member under the Lonerider banner is Brian J. Anthony, who previously worked with Overland and Steve Walsh.
If you read the bands in those brackets carefully, and if you’re one of maybe five Slovenian connoisseurs of the British school of AOR and melodic rock, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that Lonerider’s debut »Attitude« should really be the new studio album from the Shadowman project. The only real difference is that instead of Harry James (Thunder, ex-Magnum), the drummer on »Attitude« is the legendary Simon Kirke, and that’s enough of a noticeable change in the musical story to justify calling it a new band.
»Attitude« slots in easily alongside the stuff that’s typical of FM (in their new era) and, quite logically, the Shadowman project. What sets it slightly apart from both is the classic “rock’n’roll vibe” brought in by Simon Kirke’s noticeably different drumming, which carries over to »Attitude« some of that bright, old-school rock energy of Bad Company’s “healing magic,” along with a bit of Free’s rascal spirit.
»Attitude« is an excellent album. In every way. First of all, it boasts excellent production, where the contrast between the building blocks is downright brilliant. The rhythmic kinetics are striking and there’s no shortage of highly dynamic flexibility. The musical payoff of the highly infectious melodiousness is clearly present and strongly felt all the way through, peaking in catchy chorus hooks. Steve Morris’s songwriting style is set in stone, hence the similarities to Shadowman, while the singing of the one and only Steve Overland, with his strikingly distinctive, utterly unique and instantly recognizable vocal character with its catchy soul hairdo, is once again the factor that brings it all dangerously close to the current work of one of the best-known AOR bands in Great Britain, namely his home outfit FM.
So from start to finish, the album is full of excellent AOR compositions with an organic production feel, and it’s hard to pick out highlights because you simply can’t find any dip in quality from song to song. Everything is done with a real, full-blooded sense for the payoff of songwriting and arranging brilliance, and the band thought of absolutely everything. Even the instrumental middle-eight passages, where Morris’s guitar mastery sparkles. Overland is once again the biggest attraction of this album too, and his voice is strikingly similar to, if not the same as, the classic Steve Overland of the mid-eighties and the FM album »Indiscreet«. He ages like wine, and that’s what makes him truly unique.
So »Attitude« is the creation of five extremely experienced musicians who’ve known each other for a very long time, with no secrets or open questions between them. There’s an incredible harmony in how they see ideas and bring them to life. Honestly, it’s the best that British-Isles-made AOR can offer right now. Sadly, only the generation that put it on the world map in the eighties can still make it like this, which makes any record like »Attitude« all the more valuable an achievement today. That’s assuming absolute quality, of course, and the team behind the Lonerider debut definitely doesn’t lack it. »Attitude« is, and we say this with zero modesty, already one of the highlights of 2019 for AOR/melodic rock albums!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Tracklist:
1. My Imagination (3:19)
2. Lonerider (3:38)
3. Hard Heart to Break (4:12)
4. Fast Train (3:57)
5. Wanted Man (4:32)
6. Yesterday Heroes (4:02)
7. Angel Without Wings (3:39)
8. Rock ‘N Roll Dreamer (5:00)
9. One in A Million (3:33)
10. Gimme Your Love (3:46)
11. Rhythm of Life (3:32)
12. Heart & Soul (3:59)
Lineup:
Steve Overland – vocals
Steve Morris – guitar, keyboards
Brian J. Anthony – acoustic guitar, mandolin, percussion
Chris Childs – bass guitar
Simon Kirke – drums
