Rating: RRLabel: High Road Easy 2012
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
High Road Easy is a band that consists of vocalist Jan Knopf and guitarist/bassist/keyboard player Sven Horlemann. This is their second album. Apparently their first album got good reviews and even producer Beau Hill contacted them after hearing some songs. Now they've put together their second album, and according to their presse release it is "a fantastic rock album"...
Okay, good things first. The album cover looks pretty good, even though similar to a few others (Nickelback's "All The Right Reasons" maybe?). Vocalist Jan Knopf is a deadringer to Steve Shannon of eighties' christian AOR band Idle Cure, which is not a bad thing at all. The production's okay too.
Unfortunately the songs itself are way too bland to leave a lasting impression. The melodies are forgettable and there are no decent hooks to speak of. The only song that stands out is the uptempo "Love Lies Bleeding", it is a pretty good melodic rock track. For the next album, High Road Easy could consider collaborating with outside songwriters and maybe hire a drummer - some of the drumming/programming on this album does more damage than good to the songs.
band website
Good God, this is by far the worst review any of my bands ever got, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteWhat really get's on my tits is that the press really think the drums are programmed. WTF is wrong with using studio drummers delivering midi files. I don't get it.
Thanks for reviewing and listening anyway.
:-)
It's a matter of taste, if you like the album or not. But you'll should check out all the circumstances before writing such a "truth". There is no drum computer on this album. Maybe you should contact Sven or Jan to get all the informations about it.
ReplyDelete