Review Coastland Ride - Coastland Ride +3 (remastered) 2011

Tracks
1. Let Me Let You Go
2. On The Path Of Greed
3. The Angels Must Have Missed A Turn
4. Never The Same
5. Second Hand America
6. Hearts To The Flame
7. Believe In Me
8. Eyes
9. Sleepless
10. Jenny s Heart (bonus track)
11. The World Is Not Enough (bonus track)
12. Pitch Black Ride (bonus track)

Band:
Markus Nordenberg - Lead & background vocals
Anders Rybank - Guitars, keyboards, bass & programming
Mikael Bohlin - Guitars, keyboards & Programming

Discography:
Coastland Ride (2003)
On Top of the World (2011)

Guests:
Per Stenvall - Guitar solo on “Believe in Me”
Anders Ringman - Guitar solo on “Eyes”
Tomas Coox - Rhodes piano on “Eyes”
Benka Jansson & Mikael Cederholm - Backing Vocals

Info
Produced by Coastland Ride
Mastering by Jonas Ekström

Released 9/12-2011
Reviewed 10/12-2011

Links:
myspace
avenue of allies

Swedish band Coastland Ride are busy at the moment, releasing a new album as well as re-releasing their eight year old debut album with three bonus tracks which is why the plus three in the title. Of course the sound has been remastered to avoid being as outdated as the album is nowadays with its almost a decade of age. The reason to remaster and re-release this album must be because it didn’t reach any audience when it was released because otherwise I see no reason whatsoever to re-release an eight year old album, it is too soon for re-issues I think, but that might just be me. So, their new album started quite good but ended poorly so the question is wether this is a better purchase or not, and also if it is good enough to merit a purchase of course. So, here goes:

It is AOR, which has to be a surprise for anyone who read the prior review, it is also quite typical such with the classical catchy choruses, very melodic guitars, the keys and the extremely polished and shiny production. I would say that there is not really many surprises emanating from the debut album of Coastland Ride, it sounds very much as you imagine an AOR album shall sound. The album is also remastered to sound better I suppose and there is nothing to fault when it comes to the sound of this album, it sounds good. The original release had nine tracks and this one has as stated three bonus tracks which makes it twelve tracks and a playing time of 46 minutes.

I can state that it is a good album, no denying that, it has all the good ingredients of the genre. There is just one problem, there are already quite a few bands sounding just like this out there and I believe they will have a tough time getting noticed with music like this. Sure the songs are good, the catchiness is fine, the calmer songs shine quite well but the problem is that so does the music of Grand Design, Big Life, Afterhours, Elevener, Fate, Alfonzetti and the list goes on and on and on of bands and albums that are good but good is no longer enough in the AOR genre. There is nothing that really grabs me on this album and that is the problem, a problem that is the same for so many other bands in the genre as well. Well, actually there is one thing that I take notice of and that is the track Second Hand America which is a very good track and it is slightly different making it at least something that I might keep with me now that this review is written and this album ends up in the big pile with all the other albums.

In the end there is not much negative to say about Coastland Ride’s debut album, it is a well played and well made album. There are no bad songs on it and in that regard it is better than their latest album and I think also as a whole it is much better than that album. There is at least one possible track to bring with me as well so as a whole it is an approved album and certainly much better than the crap my neighbours seems to be playing, fortunately there is a lot of volume to be taken out on this stereo. So Coastland Ride +3 gets a rating of 4. Approved by Daniel is what I stamp on the cover.

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Coastland Ride Coastland Ride +3 (Remastered)

Coastland Ride
Coastland Ride +3 (Remastered)