P.A.L.
Prime

I think that most agree that Swedes are rather good at making AOR-music, and it seems that there are quite a few that are making it as well. P.A.L. are the first letters of the trio that makes out this new Swedish contribution to the AOR-genre. But their collaboration isn’t really new, they first collaborated back in 1987 and now 30 years later they are at it again and have put together the album Prime that is being released on the AOR Heaven label. Being released on that label is usually a warranty that it will not be a poor album we are dealing with, they don’t really release bad stuff and Prime is certainly not an exception to this rule.

Their music can be described as AOR, it builds around catchy choruses, much uptempo energy and strong melodies. The vocalist is pretty good and the production very strong giving room for a bit of power as well as the melodies. Prime offers songs of the usual variety for an AOR album with a few uptempo songs, some more anthemic songs as well as the obligatory ballads. There are no surprises or traces of originality to be found on this album, just the typical style of AOR that is being released in big numbers these days, meaning that they have quite an obstacle to overcome to be noticed.

One thing that first strikes me is that the album could have been shorter; it is easy to loose interest around track nine when the mind wanders away to other things. I really like the opening track Heads or Tails but you could almost claim that it is downhill from there, the ending picks it up a little bit and sometimes the interest returns to Prime for a few minutes before the music ends. And when the music ends it is quickly forgotten, the opening track might be remembered while the rest of the album passes into oblivion when the last note falls silent. But I still think it is a solid album in this genre, it pushes the right buttons and it is easy to take in and easy to like, and like most of their genre competition it is very easy to forget.

If you like all things AOR, or AOR of the typical variety it is a very high probability that you will enjoy this album as well. It has what the AOR fans usually want, and I have enjoyed playing it as well. But as a critic it is difficult to overlook that my mailbox alone fills up with at least one equally good album in this genre each week, add to that a better album and several worse album per week in the genre as well. I think that I alone receive at least one AOR album every day so they have some stiff competition to outshine and unfortunately I don’t think they are interesting enough to stand out from the masses.

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