This album came out at the beginning of last summer. And I would have thought that with all the “endless road” work they did after Fall Of The Plastic Empire was picked up by V2 they would be primed for AOR glory.
The first cut, Heart Full Of Black, should have been all over AOR from its opening chord and pounding drums/panned pick slide intro to its Boogie inflected guitar, subtle tambourine and its tough yet controlled vocal all coming down the pike at about 73 MPH; there wasn’t one thing that outclassed it on AOR that summer.
Hell, if they used a bit of studio magic and dubbed in some judiciously arranged backing harmonies and vocals they probably would have scored an iPod commercial. It’s not like they didn’t do it elsewhere: the following number, Come Alive, has exactly the things that were needed. Unfortunately that’s this platter’s peak.
Throughout they demonstrate their facility with the many faces of Rawk: the sludge Metal of King Of The Demimonde, though counterbalanced by an airy verse vocal; a bit of semi-Boogie, à la Black Crowes, in Century Song; the wailing, post-Grunge of the title track complete with guitar heroics; and yon Power-Ballad, the closing Vampire Waltz. They also extend their range with the acoustic guitar-led, mid-tempo ballad Pleasure In The Pain which is overlaid with some of those extra vocals, some bluesy harmonica and slide guitar.
The following cut, From You is my next favorite being as close as they get to Pop-Rock, and only two-and-a-half minutes long. It bears a melody seemingly drawn from Dom Mariani but with a tougher, thicker rhythm, a tuneful, plaintive lead vocal by Dimitri Coats, little ride cymbal bits and an undercoating organ, care of former Jellyfish Roger Manning. (The more I listen to this the greater the accomplishment seems, sure it’s relatively simple but oh, oh so succulent) Manning actually fills in spaces throughout this album with his array of keyboards.
So it’s not like they were opposed to studio magic, which brings me back to the missed opportunity of Heart Full Of Black. Maybe the failing was (co)producer George Drakoulias’ for not pushing everyone’s imagination. But here we are with Spring ’05 a month away and I’m checking out amazon.co.uk’s “3 albums for 10£” sale when I come across the inclusion of Fall…
[Released by V2 2004]
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