UK AOR hopefuls Atlas are a rum bunch. Overall, their sound – Vega as played by a Bon Jovi tribute act who have more than a passing interest in Journey – reminds this reviewer of the host of never-were Brit AOR bands who toiled away in the pubs and clubs of the UK in the late eighties. That’s to say, in thirty years time, people might nostalgically look back at the band, just as we do when we break out our old Outside Edge, Shy and Tobruk albums now, and exhale sadly ‘why weren’t this lot huge’?
Atlas won’t be huge of course, though that’s not their fault entirely. Labels like Frontiers have proved there is still a market for this stuff; It’s just a shame that for the most part, unless you’re Swedish, that market is mainly peopled by bands and musicians who were around during this kind of music’s glory days. And those bands have, at least in part, the nous to move a bit with the times. Night Ranger or Winger wouldn’t be seen dead near an overwrought ballad such as Tears, forever…
When the band get it right, as they do on the spectacular Just Like That, then the future looks relatively bright. Compared to the sixth form angst of Tears, this is world-beating stuff, a mature, articulate slab of Yacht Rock-tinged melodic hard rock that ticks all the boxes required for success in the world of AOR in 2023. Howie Little‘s classy lead guitar interjections here elevate the song to places the rest of the album can only dream about, and surely this is a direction the band can mine fruitfully moving forward. One More Night is another Song that oozes promise in a similar area.
Above all, you need a good singer to pull this stuff of successfully; Craig Wells is a good singer, that much is evident, but he still needs to inject more of his own personality into proceedings. The second track here, You’re Not Alone , has a chorus close enough to Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life to get unscrupulous music biz lawyers sniffing around, and the situation isn’t helped by Wells’ perfect appropriation of the blessed JBJ‘s vocal stylings. And whilst we’re not asking for Corpsegrinder-style death-grunts, this situation might have been alleviated by slightly less attention to detail, if you get my drift…
Still, let’s keep things positive – Atlas clearly have the chops, and prove they can harness their talent successfully here.Album four might just be a monster…
Built To Last releases on October 20th
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