Label: LiveRock/Playground 2012
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
Jaguar or Puma? Nah, that's clearly the Cougar and White Flame are playing around with the old saying that sex sells and you're buying? Make no mistake, the woman of the artcover? absolutley nothing in common with the band nor their musicians. The finns are however back with their strongest effort so far and Vince The Vocalist & Anthon The Guitarist are no doubt rising stars in the melodic/sleazy field of things. There's no need to worry about any weird singing accent or stale guitar work, etc.
It's a diverse and surprisingly good album full of dynamics and cheeky eighties hardrock tunes. It's a nice mixture of groovy guitar riffs inspired by the likes of Guns N Roses and Aerosmith with a couple of catchy arrangements in the style of Bon Jovi and The Desmond Child version of Alice Cooper. The four gang aka Vince (vocals), Anthon (guitars), Sammye (bass), Jony (drums), recorded "Cougar" in Sweden with producer and fellow melodic/sleaze artist Chris Laney and the album kicks like a mule to the head.
They're spitting out clever and catchy numbers such as "Get What's Mine" and "I Know Where You Live" (co-written by producer Chris Laney), the latter the extremely fun sing-a-long anthem in the vein of Alice Cooper (Trash) and Bon Jovi's heydays including the sambora talk-box and everything. Not entirelly sure what they are getting at with a title such as "Used To Be a Girl" though? Blimey, one of them used to be a girl? However, going through the booklet and reading the lyric, the refrain actually goes along the lines of and I quote, 'There used to be a girl like you', end quote. Surely, "(There Used To Be) A Girl Like You" would have been the more appropriate title? But then again...
The pure energy and attitude of tracks such as "Right Back In" and "We Get It On", almost enough to please any fan of old skool sleaze and Guns N Roses/Aerosmith rock? And what if you're into power ballads? Check out "Make Believe" and "Stay" since it's remedy for the broken hearted. The cover of The Look (Roxette) is okay but hardly essential to the overall quality and rating of the album. Final verdict: candidate for biggest melodic/sleaze surprise of the year.
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