Room Experience
Another Time and Place

This band are experienced when it comes to rooms, the question what kind of experience. Do they visit lots of hotel rooms, or just rooms of other sorts? Perhaps it is the rehearsal rooms? The mastermind behind Room Experience is Gianluca Firmo, who I reviewed positively not too long ago. This is the second album under the Room Experience moniker and like the first it is David Readman who does the vocals and many prominent guests do their parts. The album is called Another Time and Place, perhaps referring to the fact that most fans of the AOR genre probably want it to be the past as the music hasn’t really evolved since Journey’s debut many decades ago.

It is AOR, that is probably all that is needed to say about it. The vocals style is a bit rougher, Readman has more of a hardrock style of singing but it fits well. The choruses are catchy, the melodies strong, there are some fine hooks. Everything is according to the genre manual, and there are no surprises – like it usually is when it comes to the AOR genre, it is rarely a creative genre that comes up with fresh ideas. But it does come up with strong productions and Alessandro Del Vecchio have been mixing and mastering, that is usually a guarantee for strong sound. A strong sound is what we are given, it is a strong production and that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the skill involved in this album.

The music is a little bit too much like expected, I would have wanted something more dramatic, something more exciting, but we are given a classic and good AOR album. Fans of the genre will like it and enjoy the songs, hooks and everything. It is kind of telling that they begin with Hear Another Song, as that is kind of like what it is, like hearing another song and another song and another song until it ends. Perhaps it is telling that the favourite track of mine is the one called Disappointed as that is often how I feel after trying to come up with new things to write about the same albums, the result is a bit of a disappointment most of the time.

I recommend fans of the genre to have a look at this album, it will be appealing to them. I think it works, the songs are good and everything. I just think they should have risked a bit more, to try something different, what is fun in doing the same thing as everyone else does? And how do you expect to stand out from the crowds? In another time this would have been a brilliant album, but that time has come and gone so now it is closer to average than brilliant.

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