It’s been an interesting ride so far for Sweden’s Grand Design who released their fourth album ‘Viva La Paradise’ in March. Recorded at Studio Underground in Västerås, Sweden just like previous releases it’s another winner with frontman Pelle Saether who wrote most of the first two albums seeing more contributions coming from other band members notably guitarists Janne Stark and Dennis Vestman.
If you’ve heard Grand Design before then you’ll know to expect huge production, big choruses, memorable songs and a mix of sonic styles from early eighties AOR to Def Leppard style arena anthems. Indeed we get the first two in the first two tracks here with ‘Face It’ leading the way with a slick, catchy, rocking stab at vintage AOR and (the title rather gives it away) ‘Rawk ‘N Roll Hysteria‘ coming across all Def Leppard.
If you love melodic Rock this is definitely something you will want to check out – title track ‘Viva La Paradise’ says it all really – slick, good time hard rock with a real infectious groove and on album number four a harder edge that really comes across in the guitars on tracks like ‘Don’t Ice Me Out’.
Whilst there are lighter more melodic moments like ‘I Would Be The Wind’ or ‘Love Shouldn’t Hurt’ there are no ballads here, something else that underlies that heavier edge.
Ten great tracks, with not a foot put wrong ‘Viva La Paradise’ is an album that would be lingering around the high end of the charts thirty years ago, hearing it today I’m amazed that there’s such sheer quality in this genre today. Certainly a contender for my Melodic Rock album of the year. Check out the later tracks like ‘It’s Only Straight From The Heart’, ‘Too Late To Fall In Love’ and ‘U Can’t Fool Love’ as this is an album that gets better the deeper you get.
Pelle Saether – Lead vocals | Janne Stark – Guitars | Dennis Vestman – Guitars | Stefan Westerlund – Bass |Joakim Jonsson – Drums
