A puzzlingly titled new album from perennial "why the hell haven't this band made it" band, 7
th Heaven.
The answer to the perennial question is easily answered of course - they're just not fashionable. There are few bands better at what they do - top quality eighties style
AOR - but outside of an admittedly sizeable coterie of aficionados worldwide, demand for their product never outstrips supply.
Live it's different. They obviously appeal to a certain age group. Those fans bring their kids along and then, surprise surprise, the kids love them too. But when you're successful on this circuit - on land or at sea - it's hard to break out of, even if you wanted to.
Okay, enough back story, what of '
USA-UK'? The title came from the addition of UK vocalist, Keith Semple. Winner of the UK talent show, Popstars, his ensuing career was short lived. A connection was made with Rich Hofherr, 7
th Heaven's mainman via My Space, and suddenly Semple had relocated to the USA, fronting Hofherr's band.
It's a marriage made in, er . . . heaven. Much of good
AOR is pop in wolves'clothing, and Semple's voice has just enough edge to sound genuinely convincing on this material.
Occasionally you wish Hofherr (who also produces) would throw a handful or two of grit into the mix. It can be a bit too much on the soft side of centred at times.
Yet there's no denying the pounding, purposeful
AOR pulse and vertiginous choruses of
'Silver' re-recordings ' like '
Cellophane', '
Gravity',
'Kill The Cycle' and
'Ghost Of Me'.
These were so good the first time round that a big budget remake with Semple on vocals is a perfectly appropriate approach for Hofherr to take.
Opener '
Better This Way', a Hofherr / Semple co-write, is the most immediate of the new material, and is fashioned very much in the image of the older stuff. Think Michael Morales / Brian McDonald.
Easy triumphs aren't always the most rewarding, but the opposite is almost invariably true. Repeated plays of the newer material reveal the potential of this fledgling writing partnership.
Hofherr has stripped away a few layers of his trademark polish and left a few rough edges here and there. This works best on '
Gave You My Word',
'So Really Old' and '
Tragedy' where the melancholy mood reveals another, very welcome side to the band.
I left the best till last. Buried in the second half of the album is
'Undone'. It was the highlight of the
'Silver' album by a huge margin, and easily manages the same feat here.
It's very much a boyband styled rock song with a slightly sinister undertone, a style suited to Semple's darker vocals, vaguely reminiscent of the superb but short lived Australian band, Invertigo.
For the next album, and I sincerely hope there is one, the Hofherr / Semple partnership promises great things.
Meantime,
'USA-UK' will satisfy the appetite of even the hungriest of fans.
Written by
Brian Monday, November 03, 2008
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