Artist: Lauren Harris 
   Title: Calm Before The Storm
   Label:

One of the most anticipated release of the year has to be Lauren Harris’s debut album ‘Calm Before The Storm’ and finally it's here and the question on most peoples lips is can Lauren step away from dad Steve Harris’s wings and make it on her own and with the first step being a debut album what will the world make of Lauren after it?

Well simply this is an album that doesn’t really grab me from the first listen, but as I played again it began to grow on me.  Lauren has a vocal style of her own and the album is built around her vocal with is Hard Rock styling.

The album gets underway with ‘Steal Your Fire’, a great opener that really gives the listener a great sample of what Harris has to offer as a singer and although her style will be compared to the likes of Avril Lavigne, Harris has more to offer than Lavigne ever will.

As this album starts to grow on me I can feel my optimism grow as the album continues ‘Your Turn’, an up-tempo rocker that is very much a crossover between Joan Jett and Shania Twain a sort of Country Rocker.

The more contemporary rock feel is more abundant on ‘Get Over It’, a more guitar rich track with Harris exploring a more harder vocal.  'Like It Or Not' is more of the same but with Richie Faulkner guitars taking more prominence on the track than anything before.

The tempo is brought down with the gentle ballad like ‘From The Bottom To The Top’, again a great Melodic Rocker as is ‘Let Us Be’ before things really slow down with the heart-warming tones ‘Hurry Up’, another gentle slice of Melodic Rock.

I was really expecting something a little rockier from Harris and it isn’t until ‘Come On Over’ that the album has something to get your teeth into, a really meaty rock song that really shows what Harris and the rest of the band are capable of, and for me this is the track of the album, with Faulkner really let loose from his shackles as he rips up a storm on this one.

The more rockier side of the band is continued with ‘Hit Or Miss’ and the excellent ‘See Through’.  This is what I thought the entire album would be like great up-tempo rockers with a ballad or two, this is definitely an album of two halves a gentle start and a more exciting ending I guess hence the title 'Calm Before The Storm'.

One of those more gentle tracks is the haunting melody ‘You Say’, which wraps up the album proper but there is extra bonus track with this promo, a cover of UFO’s ‘Natural Thing’.  A great version of this classic and again shows the bands more rockier style which I for one prefer.

As I said from the off this album is definitely a grower and I for one will be looking forward to the second album to see if the band and Harris can lift it up a notch or two. 

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