When I was younger I was a serious collector of music by Jethro Tull, and I also turned my attention to offshoots of the band, which is how I discovered Blodwyn Pig, Wild Turkey etc. Anyway, when I first heard that there was going to be a new album from Paris I became incredibly excited as I hadn’t heard any new material from the band in years. I mean, this was the wonderful hard rock trio formed by Bob Welch (Fleetwood Mac) and Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull, Wild Turkey) with Thom Mooney that released two great albums in the Seventies, wasn’t it? Okay, maybe not. This Paris has been named this way as the two main characters, Frédéric Dechavanne and Sébastien Montet, are French. They have known each other for years but this is the first time that they have worked together for some time. Together they are responsible for the songwriting, lead vocals, guitars and keyboards while producer Alessandro Del Vecchio (Lionville, Hardline, Issa) brought in fellow Italians, Anna Portalupi (Mitch Malloy, Lionville, Hardline) on bass and Alessandro Mori (Mitch Malloy, Lionville, Axe) on drums. There are also a couple of guests including Swedish songwriter Robert Säll (Work Of Art, W.E.T.) on guitar and Steve Newman (Newman, Big Life) from the United Kingdom on backing vocals.
So, a very different proposal to the one that I was hoping for, but I haven’t been disappointed. No, not in the least. This is all that I want from a melodic rock album with great songs, hooks, wonderful vocals, and not too much saccharine. There has to be a rock edge otherwise it just turns into mush, but there is no issue with that here. One great song after another and I can guarantee that before any song has finished that you will be singing along with the chorus. Yes, there is the obligatory power ballad, but overall this is the type of melodic AOR that gained such great success in America – they certainly don’t sound European. And I mean that as high praise. This could have been released during the classic period, it is definitely something worth investigating by any fans of the genre.
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