Issa
Can't Stop

She can’t stop making an album a year it seems like, this time she has taken on some classic AOR hits by bands like Atlantic, Aviator, Regatta, Worrall and some more than that. She also has a new band behind her which I think is the band called Hardline with Alessandro Delveccio as the main guy. I think Issa’s positive poprock approach to the AOR kind of music on The Storm was a great thing and brought out a really good album and the song Looking For Love which is a great distinctive hit song. But now it is the next year and her third album in three years, a busy girl one can say, and now she goes down the cover route making covers of some big AOR hits that some say make up sort of an ultimate AOR-collection. That is something I don’t really agree with as it is not the kind of AOR songs that I like, they are the simple ones built around repeating a chorus over and over but maybe with a better voice and some “issafication” it might work.

Yeah, it is AOR with nice polished production and catchy repetitive choruses. But when compared with her earlier album The Storm I think that this production is murkier than the one on the earlier album and it is not as positive and not as poppy as that one either which I think is a bit of a shame as Issa’s voice works better when the music sounds upbeat rather than a touch heavier and rockier. In many way it is a production that reminds me of Delveccio’s latest effort with his band Hardline, quite ordinary. The songs on the album also feels surprisingly similar to one another considering that they are from many different bands in original, something that might be a problem considering the 55 minute playing time of the album’s twelve songs.

My first impression and subsequently lasting impression is that this album is not as good as The Storm, where the main difference you will notice first is either that it lacks that distinct leading hit like Looking For Love was on The Storm (there is no song even close to that on this album), or the production that doesn’t really do anything for the songs. The overall quality feel is that this album is a big step backwards from the prior album, maybe it is down to Delveccio’s presence, a search at the Hallowed website shows that I have only really liked one album that he has been involved with. Maybe it is just that these songs are not as good as the ones on The Storm but considering that these are classic hit songs which the songs on The Storm isn’t that must be considered unlikely, but I do think that Issa isn’t sounding that upbeat in the songs of this album and she does best in poppy upbeat songs. This is darker than The Storm was and it just isn’t as good.

There are three songs I found quite good on the album, Power Over Me, Do You Ever Think of Me and I Won’t Surrender are those and the rest of the songs I can both have not have, it makes no difference as the songs feels indifferent to me. And this album in general feels a bit unnecessary to be honest, not that I have anything against a cover here and there as I always enjoy such things, although generally just one or two on a regular album and not albums full of them. And why these songs? they are not that great in the first place and even if Issa is a better singer than most of these band’s singers it still makes no real sense as there are much better songs out there to chose from. So in the end I think this is more of a curiosity for those who wants to hear Issa’s take on these songs than it is an album really worthy of checking out. If you want to check out Issa her album The Storm is a much better choice as it is lightyears ahead of this one and as a matter of fact I started listening to that album rather than the one I reviewed when writing this.

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