Review Alfonzetti - Here Comes the Night 2011

Tracks
1. Losing You
2. Here comes the night
3. I’ll wait for you
4. Heartbreaker
5. Don't listen to your heart
6. Why can´t you love me
7. Lay your love on me
8. Rock n roll heart
9. Set me free
10. I will never let you fall

Band:
Matti Alfonzetti: bass guitar, guitar, vocals
Daniel Flores: drums, keyboards

Discography:
Ready (2000)
Machine (2002)

Guests:
Marcus Jidell: Lead guitar
Emil Fredholm: Lead Guitar

Info
Recorded at Sound vs Science Studios and Atomic Rooster Studios, Stockholm.
All songs written and produced by Matti Alfonzetti, mixed and co-produced by Daniel Flores

Released 25/11-2011
Reviewed 14/11-2011

Links:
aorheaven

Swedish singer/musician is releasing his third album under his own name, he is otherwise probably most known for his collaboration with british band Jagged Edge. Other than that he has also been collaborating with some other bands and lately he has also worked on writing music for other bands/artist, like successful countrymen in The Poodles. Here Comes the Night is the name of his third album under his own name and it comes almost a decade after his latest one, it is also the first one sporting a title of more than one word. For this album he has been teaming up with the rather busy drummer/producer Daniel Flores who seems to have his finger in much of what is going on in the genre these days, and as that wasn’t enough he has found two special guests known from the bands Evergrey and Plankton. So with experience dating back to the eighties and with competent people helping out, this cannot go wrong, can it?

The answer to that questions comes in the text following the description of the album. It is melodic rock, in case you did not understand that from the label, not the supremely polished and clean version that is called AOR but not that far from it either I would say. It is the catchy choruses, the very melodic disposition and a rather polished sound that Alfonzetti is offering us who listen to his music. The production is quite polished but only to a point that we might still detect a small trace of a raw feeling, Alfonzetti also sings a little less cleanly than the AOR vocalists but still with a rather clean voice and his singing isn’t picking the same high notes as the AOR vocalists tend to do. The ten tracks of the album takes 39 minutes to play through and they can be said to remain quite coherent in style throughout all tracks.

So to answer the question, I don’t think it can fail as Alfonzetti is going for safe bets all the way through, the songs follows a tried and tested format that always seems to work quite well and does so in this case as well. The music is hardly unique in any sense of the word, it is of a type that we happen to hear loads of bands how up all the time, a genre that is rather crowded these days and if you are someone who listens to a lot of music coming out to the rock musical world I would say that it offers nothing new whatsoever. That does not mean that it isn’t good though, I think Alfonzetti has done a good job with this album and if you are a fan of melodic rock music and doesn’t already own a racket of albums in that genre I guess this will suit you quite well as I doubt anyone will think it is bad, a tad unoriginal but still good.

I think the album opens really well in the first track Loosing You and the title track but then it feels a bit like it dies a little, or rather my interest in it dies a little. For the following songs flows together into a giant mass of melodies and choruses, of course it is not a mass of random melodies and songs but as I loose focus it is only fragments that I pick up while I listen to the music. Not that the songs are bad in any way, but as I previously stated they are not exactly innovative which for me makes it hard to focus on as I hear many albums and I have more or less 40 to review at this very moment and that makes those that do not really stand out much harder to review and the focus tend to move elsewhere.

In the end though I would have to say that although this album does not win any contests in originality but it is still a well made album with good songs and no real weak points either so clearly an album for those into the melodic rock music. An album that pushes all the right buttons and one that is a good choice for keeping the silence out during the cold days that are soon upon us.

HHHHHHH

Alfonzetti Here Comes the Night

Alfonzetti
Here Comes the Night