Sometimes, especially when you are stuck in traffic in Glasgow, as I was the other day, something noisy and upbeat is the only thing that will do.
AOR, Melodic Rock, whatever you want to call it has never been fashionable, but scratch the surface and you will find a lot of people admitting to listening as a “guilty pleasure”. Why feel guilty about it? There is as much dross as any other genre but there are some great records both old and new waiting for you to sing along.
When The X Factor had a moment with Don’t Stop Believing a few years ago (why it wasn’t the winners single that year I don’t know), the Journey original shot up the charts. While Journey are far from my favourite band the song has most streamed/downloaded song status on many portals and in lots of countries.
Who should you be listening to and where do you find out about it?
Work Of Art. Four albums into their career, they have yet to produce anything below an 8 out of 10 record. Play this loud
Radioactive. I did a whole post on Tommy Denander a while ago. His name is a mark of quality and you should buy anything he is on. The Radioactive albums are his best though.
A recent album from a new band The Defiants, ‘Zokusho’ has been hailed as album of the year for 2019 in many quarters.
Terry Brock has appeared on some great albums, solo, with Strangeways and as a guest artist. This is one of his best songs.
Hopefully that has whetted your appetite so where can you learn more? Best magazine by far is Fireworks. There is usually a free digital copy to be had of a back issue here, so give it a try.
Rob Evan’s AOR Underground appears in Powerplay magazine, which is a bit more heavy metal focused than Fireworks but still worth a read. He is also on Facebook here.
Melodic Rock, run from Australia by Andrew McNeice is the best online portal, lots of reviews and news.
And that is AOR/Melodic Rock. Way more to it than Journey, Toto, or Giant. If you like a good tune then this is the genre for you, and one that gets a lot of play on the iPod, especially in the car.
