The Hard Place #3
If variety is the spice of life, then today’s Hard Place menu is, we must warn you, hotter than ever before. We’ve got hard bits, soft bits (sue me) and even prog bits but, as usual, all of our bits are exceedingly good. There are no specials on the board because everything here is gourmet. We have assembled the tastiest new treats on the scene so, get as comfortable as you can in those leather trousers and prepare for a four-course feast of sizzling melodic rock delights.
Our finest entrée comes in the form of ‘Nothing Without You’, the monster single from Lionville, who are five parts Italian and one part Swedish. The band, led by songwriter and guitarist Stefano Lionetti, have recently released their fourth album, Magic Is Alive, which is a meal all by itself. Lionville’s first two records, issued through Avenue of Allies, delighted AOR fans (for whom their unapologetic cover of Boy Meets Girl’s megahit ‘Waiting For A Star To Fall’ is essential listening) and a slicker third LP, A World Of Fools, was issued in 2017 by Frontiers. Fans of Sweden’s Work Of Art will recognise Lionville’s vocalist as their very own Lars Säfsund, who applies his matchless craft and passion equally to both bands. ‘Nothing Without You’ recalls the melodic punch of genre legends like Signal while sharing a blueprint with contemporary darlings like Revolution Saints. If spotlessly executed, textbook AOR is your thing, then I think you’ll find your thing is Lionville.
Time Gallery may not be a name everyone remembers but, long ago, the Swedish band released two records that are now considered masterpieces of Hi-tech AOR. Few proponents of this nerdishly niche sub-genre (with the possible exception of Bricklin) managed to create records of equal class, balancing, as they did, keys and guitars with melody and drum-machinery. Thirty years on, two original members of the Gallery - vocalist Patrik Ahlm and guitarist Fredrik Bergengren - are back with new music under the moniker Too Far For Gracie. Fusing the 90s smoothness of acts like 3rd Matinee and Toto with a more millennial rock sound, Too Far For Gracie are hard to pin down stylistically but what is clear is that the gentlemen have lost none of their creative fire - or indeed musical chops - in those intervening years. The duo have gradually been releasing songs over the last eighteen months and, here at RGM, we’re hopeful that these will materialise as a full album sometime soon. Until then, we invite you to luxuriate in the four minutes of pure melodic ecstasy that is ‘For Better Or For Worse’.
Now, if the word prog makes you shudder with the fear of being trapped in an eleven-minute epic, riddled with time changes, convoluted concepts and indulgent instrumental wig-outs, then join the club. Thankfully, on hand to crush those stereotypes is multi-instrumentalist Simon Collins, whose latest single is prog of a very different kind. Simon (son of the Phil Collins) was last seen with the band Sound Of Contact but is now reprising his solo career with the release of his fourth album, for which ‘Becoming Human’ is the title track and first single. The album is an existential and very personal journey for Collins wherein he examines our place in the cosmos and how best to ‘be human’. ‘Becoming Human’ itself encapsulates this theme in a refreshingly simple and direct way, against a modern backdrop of keys and his signature drums. The track is lushly produced without feeling cluttered and does the listener the courtesy of being all done and dusted in under four and a quarter minutes. All in all, it’s the unproggiest bit of prog I’ve heard in ages. Aside from it being a genuinely uplifting (and pretty catchy) song, the best surprise of all has to be Collins’ vocal, oscillating between the song’s eerie verse and weightless chorus with ease. If you’re after prog without the fog, then look no further.
And now, for the cheese course, we head to Norway where fluffy retro AORsters Hardware ’86 (their real name) have just released ‘Laila’, the band’s first single since issuing their 2018 debut, T L M, which featured guest vocalist David A Saylor. Having recently added keyboard player Torbjørn Kobberstad to the lineup, the group remain on AOR Blvd, the label co-founded by the legendary Kelv Hellrazer who sadly left us earlier this year. The track continues Hardware '86’s quest to accurately nail the sound of mid-eighties ‘lite’ AOR - and its authenticity is petrifying and pleasing in equal measure. With Rune Aalberg Alstad taking on lead vocal duties, Hardware ‘86’s current sound evokes cult eighties acts like Austria’s Fahrenheit and 2am. The hyperreal period pastiche of ‘Laila’ won’t be to everyone’s taste but it’s impossible to fault the detail. If you mourn the Fairlight III and crave the soft edges of an eighties production then this will definitely hit your sweet spot.
Now then, there’s the delicate matter of the bill. Just kidding, this one’s on us. We sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed dining at the Hard Place today and we look forward to welcoming you again soon to sample yet more morsels of melodic magic.
The Hard Place is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
You have reached The Hard Place. A place where the hair is just a shade more voluminous. A place where the trousers are, on average, two belt holes tighter. A place wherein it is perfectly normal for guitars to begin spontaneously spewing fireworks. Or lightning. Or both. We bring you the choicest, freshest cuts of retro-metal on offer. And, in a scene where wrongness so often prevails, The Hard Place offers a distillation of all that is currently right with the world of melodic hard rock. Quite a lot of it is, as you might expect, from Sweden.