Licence
Licence 2 Rock

Perhaps they have a licence to rock, German quartet who calls themselves Licence. Licence to be creative can hardly be what they have as you can hardly describe their cover art, music, song titles and album title as creative or imaginative. Their debut album Licence 2 Rock has been mixed and mastered by renowned producer Achim Köhler, something that should indicate that at least the sound is quite strong. Musically they are not really doing anything clever, female fronted hard rock music.

They claim that it is music that is back to the 80s without feeling dated, and that is a description that feels kind of decent when describing this album. Hard rock of the eighties, catchy choruses and decent melodies with a more modern powerful sound is how it sounds. It is an album with good sound, but it lacks imagination and originality – what Licence does has been done many time and if the licence to rock is dealt by doing the same as the majority of bands in the genre they certainly meets the criteria. And the songs are of the usual variety for an album of this genre, the best part being that they keep it short with a playing just under forty minutes.

I think it is good album overall, perhaps not the most exciting album ever but it works pretty well. The songs are pretty decent overall, the vocalist is pretty ordinary and the same can be said about the album in general. It is an album that fits very well into the very large mainstream of this genre and has very few, if any, standout traits. It is a decent album to listen to for a while before putting it aside, probably forever. I think it is a relatively entertaining album but not one that will leave an impression that lasts until the year 2017 is to be summarised. It lacks the depth and that outstanding hit song that makes a good album great.

If you enjoy the classic eighties hard rock it will probably be an album that appeals to you, it pushes most of the right buttons for that. But it can also be claimed that it is an album that lacks imagination and originality, it just one more decent album in this genre. I don’t really think there is too much excitement to gain by Licence’s debut album, it isn’t particularly interesting – but it is not enough to revoke their rock licence either.

HHHHHHH