As is often the case, I read the press release for this album after I had played it a few times, and was somewhat surprised as I had pegged this in my mind as a ‘lost’ album from the Eighties yet apparently this is a brand new release! It certainly doesn’t sound like it, as this could have come from the same stable as Mr Mister, Giant, Bad English et al, and apparently these were some of their major influences. Thomas Riekerk and his brother Robert Riekerk when they grew up in the Netherlands, and first appeared on an AOR album in 1992, but it is only now that they have got their own band together and with some friends have deliberately gone back in time to the Eighties in an attempt to recreate the music that inspired them all those years ago.
They have the sound spot on, even having songs where the guitars are overpowered by the keyboards, with hooks and harmony vocals everywhere you look. It is hard to imagine that this album has been recorded post grunge, post nu-metal, post Scandinavian Black Metal, in fact post most of the major metallic or hard rock developments that have taken place in the last forty years as it just doesn’t sound like it. But, they have somehow managed to keep a small edge so that it is doesn’t get lost in a sea of saccharine. I know that I like it, I just can’t work out how much at the moment. It’s like a guilty pleasure – I keep thinking that shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I am as it is so retro and doing untold damage to so many forms of melodic rock music, but it is so damn fine that I can’t stop myself.
If you enjoy melodic rock then you really need to seek this one out.
www.sparklands.com
