Station - ‘Stained Glass’

Fancy some classy contemporary melodic hair metal? I nearly missed this one when it sneaked out at the end of last year but there’s some good stuff on here and it’s well worth checking out.

For the first 5 seconds of opener ‘A Matter of Time’ you’ll be thinking of that Stevie Nicks’ White Wing Dove’ song but then you’ll be grabbed by the quality high pitched vocals of Patrick Kearney for the first time, followed by the infectious swing of a song that could have been one of Extreme’s finest back in the day.

Fancy a lush power ballad? ‘Never Enough’ is a classy affair which hits all the right notes and has a massive chorus. ‘Emily’ is a neat little AOR song lifted by some tasteful guitar work from Chris Lane. Lane is exceptional on this release and his very melodic and atmospheric soloing really elevates songs like the ballad ‘Angel’. It’s the same on ‘Nothing But Love’ and especially ‘All You Need is a Heartbeat’ - these guys are clearly all about the love.

This is the NYC band’s third full-length release but they seem to be quite low profile outside of the East Coast of America. That’s a shame as folks would love them over here at HRH AOR or Sleaze. Someone once described an early EP of theirs as ‘like ear heroin’. I wouldn’t go that far but the self-titled debut contains some gold like ‘Everything’ and second album ‘More Than the Moon’ is even better. Worth a listen – it might make you feel good.