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Originally
working together for the Mixtur production group, Swedes Kristoffer Lagerstrom and
Mikael Klevengard found a mutual admiration for the eighties rock sound
and starting writing songs with that era in mind just for the fun of it,
but one thing led to another and before they knew it an album was born.
The pair takes
their influences from the likes of Europe, Saga and Whitesnake and all
ports in-between, the resulting collaboration is the very fine Melodic Rock
album ‘Lost in Attraction’.
Although the
pair are Swedish, this album is more in line with the American artists of
the eighties with it's very AOR sound, but perhaps with that more modern bite to it.
The album opens
up with ‘Bring Me In’, a real piece of Melodic Hard Rock heaven with the
vocals of Lagerstrom lending themselves superbly to the whole Melodic
genre with a sort of Perry/Tempest mix.
The album
continues with a similar vibe with the hard rocking ‘A Live’, this time
bringing in more keyboards into the mix while still retaining that 80’s feel
to the overall sound. But it’s the title track ‘Lost In Attraction’ that
really steps away from that 80’s vibe and brings the whole genre slap bang
up to date.
This same modern
rock approach can be found on the excellent ‘I Am’, this up-tempo rocker is
just superb and a credit to the pairs song-writing abilities and goes down
as one of my favourite tracks off the album.
The album is
full of great songs and is just what the whole AOR/Melodic Rock genre has
been crying out for for years. Well crafted songs with great choruses and
some quite lavishly done musical interludes. This a constant factor
throughout the entire album, as the album continues to impress with the
likes of the majestic ‘Fake’ and ‘Left To Need’. However, stand out tracks on the album
have to go to the outstanding ‘I Can't Believe’, a track where the guitar
work of Klevengard really shines, and the haunting melodies of ‘Marias
Grace’, both of which just have to be heard to be believed.
The album also
shows the pair have a soft spot for the power ballad as they pull out all
the stops with ‘Fading’, while they can rock with best of them with the
excellent ‘Pain’, the more guitar fuelled ‘Make Pretend’ and ‘Outside’.
The album comes
to a close with the dark bass ridden tones of ‘The Wale’, a real step away
from the rest of the album as once again the show another string to their
bow with this power driven instrumental, which closes this quite superb debut.
It’s a rare to find an
album these days that hasn’t a bad track on it, but Union Mac have one of
the rarities and it's plain to anyone listening to the album that both Mikael and Kristoffer have put a lot of work into the album.
Both have been
very careful with the song selection and they've mixed the more rockier tracks with
the ballads to show the world their full potential as both songwriters
and musicians. They may have been influenced by some of the biggest names
in 80’s rock, but this album is definitely their own piece of Melodic/AOR
heaven and will surely get the pair notoriety in 2007. |
