Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: White Widdow
Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release: 2011
Running time: 45: 36
Rating: 4.5/5
Melbourne’s Australian AOR “revival” quintet White Widdow is back on the scene, just a year after the release of their self-titled debut studio album! That one was met with high praise on release, and with it the band proved that it’s still possible to express the gains of the AOR genre convincingly in the new era, even though the genre long ago lost the general focus of the masses.
“Serenade” is an album that not only matches its excellent predecessor but even surpasses it, both in how the sound has been upgraded and in how the content is defined. It almost reads like Mission: Impossible, but this is obviously a band riding on the wings of real inspiration and creating in a healthy climate, where the five players back each other up creatively and in their musical visions in such a way that the single-minded focus of all five members gets multiplied in expression. That in turn adds to the persuasiveness of the art entity itself, which the band can enjoy to the fullest on the scene.
“Serenade” was also mixed and mastered in Sweden, just like the debut “White Widdow”. This time the mastering was handled by Palle Saether, who, unlike his countryman Martin Kronlund, stretched out and laid bare the contrasts between the instruments even further, and in doing so wrapped even more effectively around the three-dimensionality of the sonic spectrum. He gave the drums a pulsing arena-rock feel of deep reverb, dressed the thick, pulsing bass lines in a warmer outfit, and pushed the curtain of synthesizers in the background of the accompaniment to the front, while in this kind of production he toned down the sound of the guitar phrases a bit, which were more clearly emphasized on the debut. It’s on this very album that the keyboards give the impression of a truly rustic AOR record, one whose shifting moods and atmospheres are dictated by the synthesizers, which deepens that eighties feel. The guys have further polished their technique for making the chorus melodies ultra-catchy through harmonies, which, combined with the synthesizer curtain in the background, make the build-up of that highly vibrant “old-school” AOR feel even more intense than on the studio debut. Jules Millis delivers on vocals once again, and the color of his voice remains the rhetorical ideal for achieving real AOR theater, while the atmospheric “crescendo” once again hits its zenith in the catchy, arena-sized chorus melodies.
On “Serenade” the band managed to squeeze out its (probable) creative maximum, as the album boasts a consistently high-quality helping of unforgettable AOR anthems, which is where it upgrades the debut “White Widdow”. That raises the question of whether White Widdow can even go any further with their upcoming third studio album. From the opener Cry Wolf to the closer Love Won’t Wait, we’re witness to ravenously solid AOR rhetoric that leaves fans of this kind of melodic cosmetics and atmosphere gasping for breath! The band doesn’t string the listener along for a single second, which makes this an album that’s 100% free of “unpleasant minute-fillers” that would chip away at the band’s credibility! All the songs stand shoulder to shoulder in quality.
The “traditional Giuffria” sound flares up especially in the chorus melody of Strangers In The Night, the third track Do You Remember Me is (going by the AOR textbook on sequencing songs on an album) a ballad with a bit of a “Def Leppard-esque” contour, while Reckless Nights is the embodiment of a general tribute not just to individual AOR bands but to the whole genre. Especially in the combination of melody with the effect of the verses: “Reckless Nights, Rockin’ To The Radio, Livin’ Life To Fast, Never Gonna Let It Go,…”, which has one of the album’s most ravenous choruses, with a particularly standout – perfect – blend of backing vocal harmonies (which the pre-chorus already “poisonously” fans into flame). How Far I Run keeps up this ceremonial harmonizing, while Serenade, with its newly, wonderfully crafted flow from verse to pre-chorus to chorus and a final chorus crescendo, brings back the feeling described in Strangers In The Night. The album’s closing stretch, too, with the wonderful ballad Patiently followed by the triumphantly accelerated melodic gem Love Won’t Wait, which is drenched in the magic of Danger Danger’s debut in the verse, keeps the atmosphere at a high intensity, alongside moments like Reckless Nights and Show Your Cards!
Here’s a track that calls out for a spotlight all on its own! Show Your Cards, which leads the way in building up the atmosphere, even pulls its vocal harmonies toward the tricks of Yes from the Trevor Rabin era. The vocal harmonizing wisely sticks to filling out the middle registers. That way the band kills two birds with one stone across the album. It widens and enriches the sonic spectrum it covers and fills the album with feelings in which hope and positive vibration smolder, which in turn fills the listener with energy and a big dose of optimism.
“Serenade” is an album that confirmed the promise of the debut “White Widdow”. With the new album the band capitalized on its debut and upgraded it at exactly those spots where you could feel creative reserves on the debut. “Serenade” is an album that, with astonishing efficiency, re-creates the days of the highly vibrant wave of radio-friendly rock from way, waaay back in the day…. Retro nostalgics of the melodic rock principle who still vividly remember your teenage years in the mid-eighties, you’ll melt right into it! And it’s downright unbelievable how the band managed, in less than 11 months since the release of the debut “White Widdow”, to upgrade it so convincingly across the board and reach a personal brilliance of melodic rock perfection!
Lineup
Jules Millis – vocals
Enzo Almanzi – guitar
Xavier Millis – keyboards
Trent Wilson – bass guitar
Jim Naish – drums
Production
Xavier Millis & Pelle Saether
Tracklist
1. Cry Wolf
2. Strangers In The Night
3. Do You Remember
4. Reckless Nights
5. How Far I Run
6. Serenade
7. Show Your Cards
8. Mistake
9. Patiently
10. Love Won’t Wait
