Paris
Only One Life

A duo from Paris who cleverly took the name of their home town as band name has enlisted the help of some really well known names from the world of AOR. Names like Robert Säll, Alessandro Mori, Steve Newman and the ever present Alessandro Del Veccio who has also produced this album. I think from that it is quite easy to conclude in which direction the musical stylings of this album is heading, but of course bigger miracles have happened before. Other than these names and that the French duo are the leading lights of this album and they have been friends since their teens and all of that, there is not much to say about this band as in many regards it seems like reading about any other band and that’s why I move straight to the music.

Which is AOR, surprised? It sounds of classic AOR with the catchy choruses, the melodic verses, the keys and all of that, I would say that there are absolutely no surprises in the musical style of this album. It is well produced, the sound is clean and polished and the vocals are rather good as well. I would say that this is quite a bit in the middle of the road for an AOR album, kind of like the instruction booklet version of AOR. No exciting interludes, no dramas or anything it sounds just like you imagine it should sound when looking at the cover art. There isn’t even any surprises in terms of playing time and number of songs, it is eleven songs and just over forty five minutes of music. I think that this album can be described as a typical AOR album, with some typical AOR guests in the guest list.

But is it anything to listen to? Sure it is, it is well made, the songs are good and the performances works really well just as the production. This album rocks, that is one thing you can say about it, it is a good listen in my opinion. At the same time it is an album that doesn’t really stand out, neither does it really take off anywhere during the album. Sure the songs are good and relatively varied but none is really that impressive and that is what I think of the album as well, a good listen but it is not really that impressive.

I don’t think music or songwriting are the main problems for this band with this debut album, it is the competition within this genre. It is a rather fierce competition and Paris does not really do anything to set themselves apart from all those other bands that has been coming and going since the seventies. There are many albums like this already and while one more can’t hurt, it doesn’t really help either. This makes Paris’ debut album one that is a good listen that does not make any lasting impression or makes me jump from joy, but neither does it make me want to jump from the Eiffel tower as well.

I think we can conclude that this Parisian band has a decent album to offer, but it is nothing that will go down in history or nothing that will stand out amongst all other albums we have seen so far. In the end I would say that this is a rather average AOR album, you will probably enjoy listening to it but I doubt it will make a lasting impression.

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