Chasing Violets
Outside Heaven
Aor Heaven
2012
Chasing Violets is a collaborative effort between god knows how many people, as there’s a list of musicians on the band’s site, that goes on and on for a while, spearheaded, by Frédéric Slama of all those AOR projects fame and fronted by two very charming young French Ladies, with warm and sensuous voices, namely sisters, Sarah & Mélissa Fontaine who in recent years were performing around clubs in their native country, before a chance encounter, with Mr Slama, that seemingly altered their immediate plans.
Now, there’s no press release, but the bio on their site, as well as the whole, promotional blurb, blows things way out of proportion and presents these cute sisters as being the best thing ever, which in my not so humble opinion is not the best idea. Firstly, they seem, a little uneasy, with English as a primary language, so far to often, they may change intonations to rhyme lyrics, making things sound quite odd, to say at least... secondly, this reminded me at best a tame LAOS, AXIA, Blond on Blond type of thing, parallels, could even be drawn to the rather, unspectacular, Issa, but I’d be in favor of these ladies, should they gain a bit more confidence, because at present and possibly because of the language barrier, they seem to be reluctant to let go and really belt out the lyrics, really sing!!!
This would have indeed been a really, enjoyable, CD, had the sisters, really sung on it, making this a power pop/AOR thing. Right now, it’s very watered down, by the sub-par, uncertain, performances they are putting in. Some male vocalist they trade vocals with sound quite on a different plane, altogether, just as if they were singing on a different tune altogether. Not tonally, but just from a stylistic standpoint. There are some nice tunes like “I Can’t Love No More”, “No Margin for Error”, “You’re my Obsession” and the likes.... but, I guess, this project, should have been taken back to the drawing board, not released, with all this “false and overblown praise”. It’s unfair to some of the people involved with this project, some of whom are quite “bigshots” to be mis-represented, by this not as “brilliant” and hot as it is being touted project.
I dunno if there’s any margin for error or not, but I certainly know there’s a lot of room for improvement here.
The sisters have dazzling looks and pleasant voices, but they also have accents that they should try and lose, asap and they need to try and sing their hearts out, like soon. Another record like this, and no one will give a damn about them, but if they play their cards right, oh well who knows...
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Now, there’s no press release, but the bio on their site, as well as the whole, promotional blurb, blows things way out of proportion and presents these cute sisters as being the best thing ever, which in my not so humble opinion is not the best idea. Firstly, they seem, a little uneasy, with English as a primary language, so far to often, they may change intonations to rhyme lyrics, making things sound quite odd, to say at least... secondly, this reminded me at best a tame LAOS, AXIA, Blond on Blond type of thing, parallels, could even be drawn to the rather, unspectacular, Issa, but I’d be in favor of these ladies, should they gain a bit more confidence, because at present and possibly because of the language barrier, they seem to be reluctant to let go and really belt out the lyrics, really sing!!!
This would have indeed been a really, enjoyable, CD, had the sisters, really sung on it, making this a power pop/AOR thing. Right now, it’s very watered down, by the sub-par, uncertain, performances they are putting in. Some male vocalist they trade vocals with sound quite on a different plane, altogether, just as if they were singing on a different tune altogether. Not tonally, but just from a stylistic standpoint. There are some nice tunes like “I Can’t Love No More”, “No Margin for Error”, “You’re my Obsession” and the likes.... but, I guess, this project, should have been taken back to the drawing board, not released, with all this “false and overblown praise”. It’s unfair to some of the people involved with this project, some of whom are quite “bigshots” to be mis-represented, by this not as “brilliant” and hot as it is being touted project.
I dunno if there’s any margin for error or not, but I certainly know there’s a lot of room for improvement here.
The sisters have dazzling looks and pleasant voices, but they also have accents that they should try and lose, asap and they need to try and sing their hearts out, like soon. Another record like this, and no one will give a damn about them, but if they play their cards right, oh well who knows...
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