I loved the first First Signal album from 2010 which matched the wonderful vocals of Harem Scarem’s Harry Hess with the production of bassist/song-writer Dennis Ward. ‘One Step Over the Line’ from 2016 was even better even though pretty much everything about the Project but Hess had changed – gone was Ward who wrote much of the first album and who managed to capture that Harem Scarem sound so well; and in stepped musician and producer Daniel Flores and Michael Palace to provide the music. The result was a little different sonically but just as rich and for me just edged it.
Here we get 11 tracks cut from very much the same cloth as that last album but it’s all changed yet again. This time production is still by Daniel Flores (Michael Palace provides some great guitar) but the songs are now provided by a cast of thousands (or ‘the World and his wife’ as we used to say). So this time it’s First Signal “with songs provided by: Stan Meissner, Harry Hess, Henrik Hedström, Lars Edvall, Anderz Wrethov, Andreas Johansson, Carl Dixon, Bruce Turgon, Sören Kronqvist, Morgan Jensen, Hal Marabel, Daniel Palmqvist, Ulrick Lönnqvist and Nigel Bailey.” Now you may have heard of some or all of those guys but I’m assuming that all must be involved in Frontiers Projects somewhere or somehow.
Does that matter? Well probably not except if you’re the kind of person who would like to see this played ‘live’ one day which I must admit is one of the gripes I have these days of countless projects – plenty of product, but swamped by multitude of other releases so much so that it feels like it’s almost build not to be herd and of course if an album’s not supported by live performances its shelf life is rather limited especially on a label like Frontiers who release so much.
So anyway, yes Hess is on fire, yes the songs are great if you love that AOR/Melodic Rock mash, and yes the production is wonderful. Melodic Rock in 2019 may have gotten to a place now where unless you have a define vibe, like West Coast or Yacht Rock then everything is just sounding very similar and all you can do is comment on the size of the hook or the level of passion in the vocal, but… You just can’t stop loving it though can you? Is it a Golden age for the genre? Musically, probably it’s the second great age, it’s just a shame that the numbers devouring it are getting smaller.
As songs go it’s a great bunch though, and with Hess’ voice and the production tying them all together, whilst there is a nice swathe of variety covering all the traditional Melodic/AOR touchstones like the “rousing opener” ‘Born to be a Rebel;’ the “inch perfect Arena Rock” of ‘Million Miles’ (Melodic song of the year?); the “thick groove” of ‘Walk Through the Fire’ (more like this please) or the “lightest of ballads” ‘The Last Of My Broken Heart’.
There’s nothing here I don’t recommend though, and the heart of the album has a great run of harder Melodic Rockers in: the aforementioned ‘Walk through the Fire;’ ‘Never Look Back;’ and ‘Line of Fire.’ Very nice indeed, I’ll take one!
4/5
