Issa
Crossfire
Frontiers Music Srl
2015
In the past, I have found Issa’s albums (covers and originals) to be rather mediocre affairs, so I must say I did approach this new album by her, with a certain amount of suspicion, of whether, she’d have improved or not. I mean choices, as Angelica Rylin or Issa, (real name: Isabell Oversveen), have been baffling me, a bit, since they hardly have what it takes, to really make it “big” time and I wonder who’s really buying those albums, that keep being released, but they keep going on regardless...
On this latest album it seems that with the aid, of them Vega, Martin bros, who she’s been writing with for a bit, she’s managed to refine the style and come up with a bunch of songs, that don’t sound insulting to the ears and avoided issuing over-sexualized videos, in order to cause some controversy, to 50 year old forum readers!
The style is a very soft/rock, AOR hybrid with sugary/suppy vocals all over. All the while miss Oversveen is not the worst singer you’ve ever heard and some of her low-mids sound distantly like a more underdeveloped Robin Beck, during her pop/era mixed with that ole minx from the divinyls, the late Chrissy Amphlett, but the higher parts of her tessitura, don’t sound as pleasing in my ears – it sort of is a bit of a hit and miss...
Most of the tracks are drowned in keyboards, with generally minimal guitars (unless there’s a solo), but this whole arrangement seems to work, well enough, with the instruments not antagonizing with the voice and the production sort of helps along with that. A whole bunch of melodic rock scenesters guests on the album, some from Frontiers own “stable” and some not... those include: Daniel Palmqvist (Xorigin), Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline), Steve Newman (Newman), Robert Sall (Work Of Art), Daniel Johansson (Degreed) & Stephen Chesney. As well as powerhouse choir including Pete Newdeck (In Faith, Tainted Nation), Matt Black (Fahran) and Michael Kew (Vega).
The opener “Crossfire” did surprise me, with its rather good melodic chorus and all over pop goodness.
On “New Horizon” things do get a little moody and they only sort of lift up a bit for the still melancholic chorus, which is however eclipsed by the rather stellar solo that follows it.
“Raintown” is a duet with Steve Overland from FM, a recent Frontiers signing and it’s a worthwhile ballad that reminded me a bit similar but better duets that John Wetton had attempted, that seemed to be a bit more engaging… don’t get me wrong this is not a bad song, but, it’s not a ballad, that is going to be a classic song either.
“Long Time Coming” sort of has some of the more shouty vocals, that do remind of Robin Beck a bit, but lacks a completely convincing chorus... I mean it starts well enough, but it sort of ends up feeling like an extended verse, like a lot of the choruses, on the album, which sort of reminded me, of a couple of good “Slama” efforts, before he started flooding the market with a lot of sub-par AOR-(insert word here) collective albums, with a plethora of guests on them. I mean, it’s probably a little more solid, but still, leaves a lot to be desire, even if this is possibly, miss Oversveen’s finest moment so far.
“Fight Fire with Rain” is another sappy cliché ridden, ballad, that however, works a bit better, since the chorus is quite more defined and refined.
“Heartbeat” goes for a more Heart like sound, but Issa’s voice, especially with the sort of girly sweetness on the verses, is not as good, the chorus actually, with the harder edged mid/highs, again sounding remotely Robin Beck like, is quite spectacular, as is the solo, but – I would have liked the song with a different sounding vocal during the verses.
“Electric Lights” maintains the power pop/rock style, with some hi-techy keys also giving it character nicely.
In “Ghost Inside My Heart” miss Overseen can be heard again singing about her heartbeat… (thank God they didn’t get the idea to have her cover Don Johnson’s hit single too! Hehe) which she also did a couple of songs prior, in another quite semi convincing chorus, with the song however sounding a bit generic and cookie cutter, as do most of them on the album, with the lyrics and melodies sounding quite interchangeable, quite as if they came from some AOR song generator… which is a bit of the fatal flaw of the album.
“Red Lights” begins with some playful keys that linger about, over a nice and dynamic vocal, for the verses that extends well into the chorus. Not too bad, not bad at all, if not again a little generic. Again there’s a nice technical solo thrown in, in there, that’s nice and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
“We Rise” is the definition of “generic”… and this time, the chorus fails to impress, as in some previous cases.
Lastly “Only You” is another decent track, but not really anything to write home about...
If you’re up for a decent female singer, singing over decent but quite generic and simplistic AOR songs, with hardly the pluralism that makes, some of the songs in the genre so great and lyrics that seem to mix and match every cliché phrase in the melodic rock songbook, almost randomly, you’ll love Issa’s fourth (?!), I think, attempt. Hell, there even are a couple of very good tracks, but the style is so homogenous, that I had trouble, even after a few spins, remembering which song is which in a few cases... Still this is definitely Issa’s best and most elaborate album so far, but it’s probably not engaging enough for people that really are connoisseurs of the genre. Still worth a spin…
On this latest album it seems that with the aid, of them Vega, Martin bros, who she’s been writing with for a bit, she’s managed to refine the style and come up with a bunch of songs, that don’t sound insulting to the ears and avoided issuing over-sexualized videos, in order to cause some controversy, to 50 year old forum readers!
The style is a very soft/rock, AOR hybrid with sugary/suppy vocals all over. All the while miss Oversveen is not the worst singer you’ve ever heard and some of her low-mids sound distantly like a more underdeveloped Robin Beck, during her pop/era mixed with that ole minx from the divinyls, the late Chrissy Amphlett, but the higher parts of her tessitura, don’t sound as pleasing in my ears – it sort of is a bit of a hit and miss...
Most of the tracks are drowned in keyboards, with generally minimal guitars (unless there’s a solo), but this whole arrangement seems to work, well enough, with the instruments not antagonizing with the voice and the production sort of helps along with that. A whole bunch of melodic rock scenesters guests on the album, some from Frontiers own “stable” and some not... those include: Daniel Palmqvist (Xorigin), Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline), Steve Newman (Newman), Robert Sall (Work Of Art), Daniel Johansson (Degreed) & Stephen Chesney. As well as powerhouse choir including Pete Newdeck (In Faith, Tainted Nation), Matt Black (Fahran) and Michael Kew (Vega).
The opener “Crossfire” did surprise me, with its rather good melodic chorus and all over pop goodness.
On “New Horizon” things do get a little moody and they only sort of lift up a bit for the still melancholic chorus, which is however eclipsed by the rather stellar solo that follows it.
“Raintown” is a duet with Steve Overland from FM, a recent Frontiers signing and it’s a worthwhile ballad that reminded me a bit similar but better duets that John Wetton had attempted, that seemed to be a bit more engaging… don’t get me wrong this is not a bad song, but, it’s not a ballad, that is going to be a classic song either.
“Long Time Coming” sort of has some of the more shouty vocals, that do remind of Robin Beck a bit, but lacks a completely convincing chorus... I mean it starts well enough, but it sort of ends up feeling like an extended verse, like a lot of the choruses, on the album, which sort of reminded me, of a couple of good “Slama” efforts, before he started flooding the market with a lot of sub-par AOR-(insert word here) collective albums, with a plethora of guests on them. I mean, it’s probably a little more solid, but still, leaves a lot to be desire, even if this is possibly, miss Oversveen’s finest moment so far.
“Fight Fire with Rain” is another sappy cliché ridden, ballad, that however, works a bit better, since the chorus is quite more defined and refined.
“Heartbeat” goes for a more Heart like sound, but Issa’s voice, especially with the sort of girly sweetness on the verses, is not as good, the chorus actually, with the harder edged mid/highs, again sounding remotely Robin Beck like, is quite spectacular, as is the solo, but – I would have liked the song with a different sounding vocal during the verses.
“Electric Lights” maintains the power pop/rock style, with some hi-techy keys also giving it character nicely.
In “Ghost Inside My Heart” miss Overseen can be heard again singing about her heartbeat… (thank God they didn’t get the idea to have her cover Don Johnson’s hit single too! Hehe) which she also did a couple of songs prior, in another quite semi convincing chorus, with the song however sounding a bit generic and cookie cutter, as do most of them on the album, with the lyrics and melodies sounding quite interchangeable, quite as if they came from some AOR song generator… which is a bit of the fatal flaw of the album.
“Red Lights” begins with some playful keys that linger about, over a nice and dynamic vocal, for the verses that extends well into the chorus. Not too bad, not bad at all, if not again a little generic. Again there’s a nice technical solo thrown in, in there, that’s nice and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
“We Rise” is the definition of “generic”… and this time, the chorus fails to impress, as in some previous cases.
Lastly “Only You” is another decent track, but not really anything to write home about...
If you’re up for a decent female singer, singing over decent but quite generic and simplistic AOR songs, with hardly the pluralism that makes, some of the songs in the genre so great and lyrics that seem to mix and match every cliché phrase in the melodic rock songbook, almost randomly, you’ll love Issa’s fourth (?!), I think, attempt. Hell, there even are a couple of very good tracks, but the style is so homogenous, that I had trouble, even after a few spins, remembering which song is which in a few cases... Still this is definitely Issa’s best and most elaborate album so far, but it’s probably not engaging enough for people that really are connoisseurs of the genre. Still worth a spin…