Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Harem Scarem
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2014
Duration: 38:03
Rating: 5/5
Last year, Canadian hard rock veterans Harem Scarem put out the album »Mood Swings II«. They recorded their classic, most commercially successful album all over again, the one that rocketed them onto the world music map and flung the doors wide open to the biggest concert stages. After the band released their farewell album »Hope« in 2008 and officially announced their retirement along with it, nobody expected any kind of reunion anymore, even though Harry Hess kept »showing signs« of life through all the years that followed, whether as a producer or guest musician on other artists’ albums, or with a solo studio album in 2012 titled »Living in Yesterday«.
Never say never, though, and Harem Scarem held on to their good spirits and creativity even after last year’s pile of shows (including a European leg with a stop in Trieste on 10/31/2013!!!), where they played the entire »Mood Swings« (1993) album front to back. The crowds welcomed the band, back and kicking, with open arms, and the response all over the globe was huge and enthusiastic, so they decided to keep the career rolling and put out one more studio album.
The album was worth every minute of the wait! Judging by the style of the three new tracks tacked onto the end of »Mood Swings II«, you’d expect the guys to be chasing the magic of their classic record, but that’s not the case. They approached the new material completely unburdened and with zero calculation. What they laid down on tape is a bundle of polished ideas that had piled up in Harry Hess’s archives over the last six years. With »Thirteen«, Harry Hess proves once again that he’s one of the most talented songwriters and arrangers in melodic rock. His partnership with the amazing guitar wizard Pete Lesperance is one of the most fruitful creative cores in the melodic rock scene. The duo did more than just their job on the new album, and the chemistry between the two of them is nowhere near fading.
Pete Lesperance’s work is once again fascinating in every way. You don’t often come across as much lively playfulness as this master’s witty, imaginative guitar playing delivers on melodic rock albums these days. From little tricks like dressing up transitions with clever guitar ornaments, to the wise spacing of notes in solos in the middle of mid-eight passages, to stunning modulations that shift the musical mood between the main motifs, to some outstanding guitar phrases that form the very core of the songs. That’s exactly what the poisonously catchy opener Garden of Eden conjures up. Harem Scarem carry that positive, optimism-bursting character over to the new album too. It’s easier to compare this record to their post-millennium albums, like »Higher«, »Overload« or »Weight of the World«, than to their older studio work. When it comes to anthemic reach and wake-up-call energy, the track that steps into the spotlight is definitely the second one, Live It, with a chorus that’s among the strongest on the album. There are also moments that open up a bit more obscurely, like in Early Warning Signs. The closing Stardust carries a similar energy! The song is pure drama: in the verse it leaps through the pre-chorus into a fresh atmospheric turn of a bubbling, unrestrained chorus brimming with positivity. The masterpieces just keep coming, especially once you reach the kind of atmospherically graduated catchiness delivered by the defiant Never Say Never, the playful Troubled Times, All I Need or Whatever It Takes.
So! »Thirteen« hands you a whole lot of creative freshness. Ten songs that deliver peak songwriting, arranging and mood, in tune with the high quality of the earlier work that Harry Hess and company spoiled us with in the past. The choruses come wrapped in outstanding vocal harmonies that contrast the bubbling vibes of pomp and bombast, and they add the all-important dot on the »i« of the incredible dynamics of an album that runs just 38 minutes. No »time machines« and no »experimental excursions of musical wizardry«. »Thirteen« is a fantastic piece of work from the first second to the last, and it proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with the band’s best, including the famed »Mood Swings«. The musical touch stays flawless, and »Thirteen« simply has to bring Harem Scarem to stages around the wider world, the old European continent included. »Thirteen« is one of the finest and best releases in melodic hard rock this year. Welcome home, guys!
Lineup
Harry Hess – vocals, backing vocals
Pete Lesperance – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Creighton Doane – drums
Darren James Smith – backing vocals
Production
Harry Hess
Tracklist
1. Garden of Eden
2. Live It
3. Early Warning Signs
4. The Midnight Hours
5. Whatever It Takes
6. Saints and Sinners
7. All I Need
8. Troubled Times
9. Never Say Never
10. Stardust
11. Garden of Eden* (acoustic version)
*…bonus track
