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Harem Scarem - Thirteen (Album Review)

November 28, 2014 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Album Reviews, Melodic Rock

Canadian band Harem Scarem released their major label debut way back in 1991, an innocuous yet superbly crafted melodic rock record which was quietly well-received.  They then went on to produce, to my mind, two of the very finest albums in the history of the genre: the seminal Mood Swings from 1993 (which was harder and took more chances than the debut) and 1995’s Voice of Reason, a record that was so forward-thinking many AOR buffs just couldn’t take it.  Both were exquisite releases for different reasons: Mood Swings was genre-defining; Voice of Reason was genre-busting.  When you’ve achieved this much with your first few releases, it’s fairly impossible to keep blowing people’s minds.  As a result, Harem Scarem have found their early fanbase hard to please ever since.  I have to confess that, as Harem Scarem’s career continued with a prolific stream of strong, if much safer, releases, I lost interest.  In fact, I stopped paying attention somewhere around 2002’s Weight of The World, and barely even noticed that the band officially ceased to be in 2008.  That said, I very much enjoyed the anniversary edition of a re-recorded Mood Swings, released last year, and its three new studio tracks revealed a band that had really benefitted from the five years off. 

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November 28, 2014 /Rich Barnard
Harem Scarem
AOR, Classic Rock, Album Reviews, Melodic Rock
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