Drive, She Said
Pedal to the Metal
Frontiers Music Srl
2016
Normally I should be “creaming” in my pants upon hearing that a new Drive, She Said album would be out, but upon listening to the new Mark Mangold/Al Fritsch opus, I sort of got divided.
While opener “Touch” was pretty much an anthemic explosion of AOR hooks, the follow-up “Pedal to the Metal” was a bit too much, way over the top and wimpier, but not in a good way. Evident was the duo’s desire to capture their late 80s/early 90s sound, but I wasn’t too sure if they were gonna succeed in their quest.
“In ‘R Blood” does improve thing some but not that much, since it still feels to have a forced hook and is too reliant on chorus “oooohhh’s” etc…
“Said It All” would have been a monumental ballad, if not for a quiet “bad” vocal performance that doesn’t lack the style, but sounds a bit “weak/thin” and out of breath…
“Writing on the Wall” begins with an interesting guitar riff and a whirl of keyboards and again could have been more than it ends up being, sounding a bit like it was mixed in a rush, with the keys almost blanketing the vocals, which is a shame, since it has some pretty nice vox, especially during the chorus (very demoish – sounding this one)…
“Rainbows and Hurricanes” is another quite basic track, with Al shouldering most of it over some really spartan/minimal orchestrations, but it also seems to suffer from lesser production values.
“Love Will Win in the End” is a bit better, in terms of sound, but apart from a nice chorus its verses sound pretty underwhelming, plus the chorus sounds more like a fed up Meatloaf, instead of Fritsch, unfortunately.
“Rain of Fire” manages to improve on almost all areas, thankfully.
“In Your Arms” is a duet between Al and Fiona, which surprisingly sounds better than she did a few years ago, all drunk and out of tune, whining about a failed marriage/divorce. She sort of single handedly saves the song from mediocrity.
“I’m the Nyte” is disco-rock that would have otherwise sucked if it’s chorus wasn’t pretty good, but prepare to be, surprised in this “falco-ish” number… and “Lost in You” is similarly “disco-pop” like but much better, if one counters out the sample and vocoder parts.
Finally, “All I Wanna Do” might sound derivative but it’s pretty awesome even in its acoustic form, but the tuning is pretty apparent and thus annoying.
Quite of few great and decent songs, but the various production periods, have not mingled that well together resulting in a quite uneven result.
While opener “Touch” was pretty much an anthemic explosion of AOR hooks, the follow-up “Pedal to the Metal” was a bit too much, way over the top and wimpier, but not in a good way. Evident was the duo’s desire to capture their late 80s/early 90s sound, but I wasn’t too sure if they were gonna succeed in their quest.
“In ‘R Blood” does improve thing some but not that much, since it still feels to have a forced hook and is too reliant on chorus “oooohhh’s” etc…
“Said It All” would have been a monumental ballad, if not for a quiet “bad” vocal performance that doesn’t lack the style, but sounds a bit “weak/thin” and out of breath…
“Writing on the Wall” begins with an interesting guitar riff and a whirl of keyboards and again could have been more than it ends up being, sounding a bit like it was mixed in a rush, with the keys almost blanketing the vocals, which is a shame, since it has some pretty nice vox, especially during the chorus (very demoish – sounding this one)…
“Rainbows and Hurricanes” is another quite basic track, with Al shouldering most of it over some really spartan/minimal orchestrations, but it also seems to suffer from lesser production values.
“Love Will Win in the End” is a bit better, in terms of sound, but apart from a nice chorus its verses sound pretty underwhelming, plus the chorus sounds more like a fed up Meatloaf, instead of Fritsch, unfortunately.
“Rain of Fire” manages to improve on almost all areas, thankfully.
“In Your Arms” is a duet between Al and Fiona, which surprisingly sounds better than she did a few years ago, all drunk and out of tune, whining about a failed marriage/divorce. She sort of single handedly saves the song from mediocrity.
“I’m the Nyte” is disco-rock that would have otherwise sucked if it’s chorus wasn’t pretty good, but prepare to be, surprised in this “falco-ish” number… and “Lost in You” is similarly “disco-pop” like but much better, if one counters out the sample and vocoder parts.
Finally, “All I Wanna Do” might sound derivative but it’s pretty awesome even in its acoustic form, but the tuning is pretty apparent and thus annoying.
Quite of few great and decent songs, but the various production periods, have not mingled that well together resulting in a quite uneven result.