Vanity Blvd
Wicked Temptation – Dirty Edition

Swedish hardrockers Vanity Blvd are returning with the album they released last year, this time it is released on a label and this time it finds its way into our list of albums to review. Their strongest album to date is what the press info states and it is called Wicked Temptation – Dirty Edition, the latter part of the title to differentiate it from the album the band released independently last year. This dirtier edition has two bonus tracks and a video in order to lure the ones who already bought the album to buy it again – or maybe it is just to make it more attractive and justify the label release. Point it that you get more from the Dirty Edition.

Hardrock, female fronted melodic hardrock, I think you may put the sleaze label on it but I am not very good with such nuances so I may be wrong in that regard. You can compare it with artists/bands like Vixen, Lita Ford, Joan Jett, to name a few for the one in search of the holy name drops. Easily digested, inoffensive commercial hardrock music, like made for the radio of the era when all melodic hard rock sold in great numbers. It is easy to like and easy to grow tired of. It has a relatively modern sound, but not really a production that stands out from what we usually hear in the genre – so not really that impressive in the sound department, the catchy chorus department is better though. Short and to the point with the normal variation of an album in the genre is another thing that can be said about the album, I would say that it doesn’t really offer anything that hasn’t already been heard.

It is no denying that this is a good album, catchy choruses, good melodies and a good vocalist are all present so you cannot really complain that much. I think it would be good radio music but at the same time I doubt it will displace any of the crap that is played on the radio today but it would be nice if it did. At the same time it is hard to really say that the album offer something we haven’t already heard many times before, or that they do this kind of music better than the once that has come before them. I think that it will probably be a nice band to know if you like female fronted hard rock, even though I really doubt that it will really turn anyone on.

Simply a solid and good album, no more and no let than that. Kind of what you can expect from looking at the band name and the artwork and an album that feels mostly interesting for those really interested in this particular genre while those with more general musical preferences might see it as just a repetition of things that already exist. And for me there is no track standing out as a real hit track either meaning that the album feels very neutral to me, it is pretty enjoyable but it lacks that little extra that makes good great.

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