Groundbreaker - 'Soul to Soul'

You’ll know you’re back in an 80s melodic dreamland when the stabbing keyboard intro to opener “Standing on the Edge of a Broken Dream” starts and, about 15 seconds in, the first ‘woah-oh’s will leave you in no doubt that FM’s Steve Overland is the voice of this project. After all these years, Steve remains the undisputed king of UK AOR vocalists; he sings like Michael Bolton and looks a wee bit like Tony Hadley but, of course, he still pisses all over both of them in terms of quality. There’s a high note on the title track that few singers of his vintage would attempt, even if they were squeezed into their own 1980s spandex trousers.

All of the songs are outstanding, but maybe “Carrie” deserves a special mention and “When the Lightning Strikes”, which is as heavy as this gets. “Captain of Your Love” would be a great title for a yacht-rock song and maybe one day it will get a laid-back remix. Guitarist, Sven Larsson, might be the man for that job as he’s got some West-coast cred and his guitar solos throughout the album are tasteful and restrained but with some real zing, especially on “Fighting for Love”. In fact, it’s a very fine band, featuring AdV on keys, Nalle Pahlsson on bass and Work of Art’s Herman Furin on drums. The harmony vocals are right on point throughout and are especially divine on the album closer “Leap of Faith”.

Groundbreaking? Not really, but aficionados of the soft and fluffy side of rock will lap it up. The great Dave Ling described the album in Classic Rock as ‘a pure AOR record for pure-AOR people’. That’s me, and I love it.