To mark this year’s 15th anniversary, ‘Hartmann’ are putting out a brand new album ’15 Pearls & Gems’ in April. The album (co-produced by Sascha Paeth – Avantasia, Beyond The Black, Kamelot) includes five new songs, five cover songs and five live versions of Hartmann originals recorded during the last few years.
Opener ‘Can’t Stop This Train’ is erectly the reason that Hartmann should already be on your radar – it’s great Hard Rock and a great way to open this celebration; and single ‘Walking on a Thin Line’ that follows is just as satisfying. It’s a great Melodic Hard Rock opening and next up ballad ‘How Does It Feel’ takes things down nicely whilst ‘You Will Make It’ picks up the pace again, it’s a great track brimming with guitar and has a wonderful Bluesy edge.The 2020 remix of ‘Glow’ is great and has a laid back Bad Co. feel to it and it heralds the last of the originals.
‘Glow’ is followed by the first of the covers – the duet ‘When the Rain Begins to Fall’ (an 80’s Pop Classic it says here) which features Ina Morgan (Avantasia) who is considered one of Germany’s greatest female rock vocalists. As I play it I realise that it’s one of those songs I had safely consigned into the ‘do not open’ vault in my mind as listening to it recalls horrible memories of Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora. It does of course sound better than that original but its still a truly awful song.
There’s an Australian choice for the second cover – Icehouse’s ‘Street Cafe’ now of course Australian’s love Icehouse but rather because of their unique sound, so I’m a little ambivalent about this one. Similarly I don’t mind a bit of Billy Joel on occasions but ‘I Go to Extremes’ was never a favourite. By this stage I’m really hoping the last couple of covers nail it but ‘Uninvited’ originally by Alanis Morissette never was my cup of tea when I first heard it and I’m even more certain I don’t like it now.
Closing the ‘covers’ section with Free’s magnificent “Fire and Water’ just makes me wish this was the starting point. We’ve had five great originals a largely forgettable covers section, so what about the live tracks?
‘The Sun’s Still Rising’ from 2006’s ‘Home’ is a great way to start and as selections from the catalogue go the five live tracks are worthy picks. ‘What If I’ that follows is great too, adding a little more melody from my favourite ‘Out in The Cold’ album. ‘Don’t Give Up On Your Dream’ is nice an uplifting, and the much touted duet ‘Brothers’ featuring . Avantasia’s Tobias Sammet on vocals is a worthy addition too.
Indeed the live selections really do knock it out of the park and closer ‘Out in the Cold’ is one of my favourite Hartmann tracks. All in all though I’m in two minds about this release – I love the originals and the live tracks that bookend this release but the covers, aside from that nice take on the Free classic, I can do without.
9/10 for the originals and ‘live’ sections
7/10 overall
Oliver Hartmann (vocals, guitar); Mario Reck (guitar), Armin Donderer (bass), Markus Kullmann (drums)
www.oliverhartmann.com / www.facebook.com/HartmannBand