Chasing Violets: "Outside Heaven"

Rating: RRR
Label: Perris Records 2012
Review by Kimmo Toivonen

Having listened to the latest AOR (the project) album "L.A. Temptation" lately, this one comes as a bit of a deja vu album - most of the songs are the same, with only the vocals of Sarah And Melissa Fontaine replacing those male vocalists on the AOR disc. Producer/songwriter Frederic Slama has found a cost-effective way of working...

Although I'm giving this album the same rating, I think I prefer it to the AOR one. There's more continuity with the same vocalists singing the songs, even though some of the songs have been edited to be duets with the vocalists on the other album. When it comes to publicity and potential to break through, I would certainly put my money on this band rather than those Slama's AOR (the project) albums. Two beautiful girls will interest the mainstream media more than faceless melodic rock artists.

When it comes to the songs, most of my favourites from "L.A. Temptation" are given the Violet treatment ("Violation"?) here. Even one of the Violets' "exclusive" tracks has to be mentioned as one of the top tracks of the batch - the fine opener "I Can't Love No More". Out of all the 18 songs on the two albums, one could have put together a rather solid 10-track CD, now both of the albums end up falling a little short. The same problems I mentioned in my review of the AOR album occur here too - the production isn't always top notch and Slama's odd way of working with words tends to annoy me a little bit.
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