Levara
s/t

The backside of being too few reviewers and having so many albums is that you often review the albums after release and after many things happen. The press material speaks of this young band comprised of the son of Toto legend Steve Lukather, who also happened to bring on friend Steve Perry of Journey to do backing vocals on some tracks. That guy has now been kicked out of the band by the other members, a drummer of One Direction and a vocalist that is from France. From my impressions it seems like the now departed member was in large the driving force of the band so it might be that they have no future when I write about their debut album – but who know? Only time will tell about the future, so how about this debut?

Stylistically it isn’t very original, it is catchy melodic and poppy rock that can be described as AOR or pop-rock, something like that. Catchy choruses combined with distinct melodic sound, the sound is quite good, but so is most melodic rock productions and this isn’t special. The vocalist is also pretty good, but also has a little weak voice like something from a boy band – I imagine that a strong AOR vocalist like Jospeh Williams or previously mentioned Steve Perry would have added a lot more to the songs. It is a very accessible album with songs that should be easy to like for those into that kind of music, but there are no surprises and no fresh ideas – they take a simple route doing tried and tested songs.

Levara is a pretty good album, but the track Ordinary kind of points out what it is in the end as most of the AOR or melodic rock is enjoyable, and you really need to be much more than that to make a lasting impression. I would say that they are a bit cowardly not to try something different, but that is true for most bands these days so it shouldn’t be surprising. So, what do they offer other than dilution of the already diluted pool of melodic rock music? Not much, a few pretty great tracks that should get you in a good mood, but in the end it is hard to claim that it is anything other than average. Perhaps the departure of one member that might have had the idea that they fulfilled with this album can bring forth something more exciting, because in my honest opinion it is an album that offers nothing of consequence and might just as well have been left undone – less resources would have been wasted if that was the case.

I don’t think you need to get this album; I will erase it from my music lists as I have so much of this genre anyway so it will just take up space on the music device. But if you get the album, it will probably not be too disappointing as it has some really strong songs, especially the opening ones. In a way it is like they lose interest or inspiration the further into the album they get, and while it seems to be interesting in the beginning you then find that you are pretty uninterested at the end of the album. Too good to be below the middle rating, but too boring to be anything higher.

HHHHHHH