Band:
Issa (Isabell Oversveen) - vocals
David Sivelind - guitar
Johnny Trobro - bass
Daniel Flores - drums, keyboards
Discography:
Sign Of Angels (2010)
Guests:
Robert Säll
Randy Goodrum
Daniel Palmqvist
Johannes Stole
Sören Kronqvist
Chris Laney
Magnus Karlsson
Info
Produced by Daniel Flores
Released 14/10-2011
Reviewed 7/10-2011
Female fronted AOR, which of course is best described as AOR with a female singer (what did you think?). Catchy choruses, melodic songs, radio friendly, crystal clear sound and produced to perfection as is customary in the genre. Isabell has been helped with this album from many known musicians, many are from bands in the Frontiers stable and most musicians are in the AOR genre and amongst other things they’ve been helping with the writing of songs. There is nothing to point to when it comes to the production of this album, the sound is fabulous and the songs are well helped by this production. There are twelve tracks on this album and they will take you 52 minutes to play through, there is a slight variation in style of the songs but there is a quite unified sound throughout the album.
I think the opening track Looking For Love is a brilliant track, lots of energy, feel and melody, I love this track not only because it grabs my attention from the get go, it also sets up a great tone for the album. I would say that track three is called Take a Stand, it reminds me of some old pop song that I cannot place but it is also probably the best beer in the world; no, that’s not right, probably the best track on the album was the thing I was looking for. Two Hearts, Black Clouds and Too Late For Love are three other tracks that linger on my mind when the music ends. So there are some really brilliant tracks on this album, some tracks do however feel a bit like fillers.
I think one problem with this album is that it is 52 minutes long, I think the album would not suffer from removing three of the tracks thus shortening it to about 40 minutes which would be ideal and the album would feel so much better. Another problem is the main character, Issa, her voice is never really fantastic but in some tracks she just does not carry enough character to do something with the song which makes it end up a tad bland.
However, her voice may not be brilliant but she has a voice that suits the kind of music she makes brilliantly and it reminds me of Anette Olzon from Nightwish when she was in Alyson Avenue, that was another match made in heaven just like Issa. And no matter the flaws, this album works on many levels, the songs are catchy, the melodies are very good and the poprock character just makes this album very fun to listen to. And I would not hesitate to come back to Looking for Love and Take a Stand again and again, the latter has just the kind of song character that I really like.
So, I would say that there are some obvious flaws but when listening to this album you tend to forget about them and when looking back after listening to the album you tend to forget them even more. I really hope to hear some of this on the local radio when I am driving around, I think she can do really well if she just gets enough coverage and exposure. The album is really good with songs that probably will appeal to most everyone for their simple yet very melodic and catchy sound. I like this album, and so do you.
HHHHHHH
