If you love your Melodic Rock and AOR then I’d be surprised if Sweden’s Houston weren’t already on your radar but if they aren’t then latest album ‘III’ and opening track ‘Cold as Ice’ is as good a place as any to start. It’s a song that encompasses the classy sheen of this infectious band who seem to intuitively know how well their rich melodies fit their slick riffs and how easily these songs slip into your ears.
My favorite track here is actually the saccharin sweet second-up track ‘Everlasting’ which starts out with a harder guitar and just glides and glides into the clear blue sky – it’s one of my tracks of the year but there’s plenty more quality in these grooves. ‘Dangerous Love’ (the latest video) adds a poppy twist that could rule the radio-waves anywhere, and ‘Lights Out’ introduces the quality classic ballad whilst ‘Amazing’ drives forwards with an almost dance-like rhythm to close the first half of the album.
‘To Be You’ kicks off the second half in equally fine fettle – it’s another drifting ballad of real substance and grows and grows as it progresses: It’s one of the tracks that sinks its teeth deeper with repeated listens. ‘Glass Houses’ takes us back to that quality AOR template Houston do so well, with a huge chorus, and ’12-Step’, ‘Road To Ruin’ and the wonderful ‘Interstate Life’ add more body and texture to what turns out to be Houston’s most consistent release yet. Houston have nailed it here, this is easily up there with the best Melodic Rock / AOR releases of the last few years.
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Band: Hank Erix – Lead vocals Soufian Ma’Aoui – Bass Calle Hammar – Guitars/Backing vocals Victor Lundberg – Keyboards/Backing vocals Oscar Lundström – Drums
