Review Outloud - Love Catastrophe 2011

They are quite popular in Greece having headlined ten shows already, their debut album was released with raving reviews for an album called a mixed breed between Skid Row’s debut album and TNT’s Tell No Tales mixed with some melodic flavours from Foreigner. It would appear as though this band has quite something to live up to when time has come for them to release their second album called Love Catastrophe.

Judging from reviews I have found on the so-called internet so far it would appear as though they have succeeded to pull of another great album, but then again I am not for judging music from what others think and prefer to make up my mind on my own. Also, I find that many other reviewer’s opinions often differ from mine which is why I don’t care what they say anyway. But even so, some reviewer called this a hard nut to crack, some other said it will be hard to beat this one to the best AOR-album of the year and another said it will probably be the best release from the label this year, those are quite strong words nonetheless no matter what I think.

The label is AOR Heaven, I don’t think it will be that hard to judge what kind of music they play. Melodic rock, surprised? I didn’t think so. Melodic with prominent catchy guitar harmonies, catchy choruses and an overall catchiness. The production is of course polished to perfection, and they have energy. The singer keeps his range in the established range of the genre. I think that describing this album as something other than AOR is like eating a tennis racket without salting it first.

42 minutes, ten tracks, energy, catchiness and crystal clear production is a short and accurate description of what Outloud and their second album is all about. I think that you could have guessed that by just looking at the cover.

So, this well-received album, is it that good? well, it is good, no denying that. I cannot compare what we have here with what was released on the first album but the cross breed described from the first album is not there. Anyway, I think the reviews are a bit over-optimistic to be honest, it is good and deserves a positive review but not that good. I can think of from the top of my head several bands only from the label that are better, TNT, Bad Habit, Million, Big Life, Afterhours, Williams Friedstedt, Bai Bang and probably some that I have forgotten. And then we have more bands than that as well and those I do not even want to begin to count here and those are in the same genre as well so proclaiming this to be the best AOR-album of the year or even close is plainly wrong, it is as I said good but not that good.

They do what they do well and they comply with the set up rules of AOR in the most correct way possible but they are not really there. I don’t find the soul of the band, they lack that little extra, that touch that the best bands have. They do not have a singer that can turn the world on edge with his voice, they do not have that fantastic hit song that makes time stop for three or four minutes, at least one of those are desperately needed today in order to make an amazing album, or at least one that will be noticed. What I think the biggest hurdle for the band is the genre itself, there are just too many bands out there who have that little x-factor that this band so much lack. Still not saying that they are bad, the songs are catchy and good and brilliantly performed but they are just that well polished and brilliantly made songs that are so sterile that they could be played to sterilise surgical equipment.

Another good band in a genre that is swamped with good bands, a band that has good songs and everything else made good but they have a big downfall in the competition. It is like a good looking surface on a car or something but then there is nothing else to show for it beneath the surface, it is good but they need to stand out would be my final verdict.

HHHHHHH

Outloud Love Catastrophe

Outloud
Love Catastrophe