Autumn's Child
Zenith

Michael Erlandsson is a busy guy with lots of stuff in his baggage, three albums in three years with Autumn’s child for example. The debut came in January 2020 and this now in 2022. It is called Zenith and it has a great looking cover, too bad that it looks like it is only released on CD judging by the press sheet. It could have looked nice in the record collection. Still, I am not so sure that it is really worth adding to a record collection considering the quality, as it is about as indifferent as the previous two releases – so the rating is the same.

Melodic rock or AOR is the style we are getting, no surprises at all in that regard. The same catchy style of songs, the same melodies, the ballads, and everything that you can expect from something in the AOR genre. Erlandsson sings well, the production is as most AOR productions, it sounds like something we have heard many times before – and I am not just thinking of the two predecessors by Autumn’s Child, but the fact that it feels like most of the songs are stolen from others. Are there no ideas of Erlandsson and his band here? It is a question I ask myself when this spins through my headphones a few times, it feels annoyingly familiar. Nothing new, no novelty at all.

Zenith is saved by the fact that most of the album’s tracks are really good, really catchy and upbeat. The worst exception is the opener, it is just a terrible track – how the hell did they decide to keep that for the album, and to start with such a bad one? The album then instantly gains pace though and you soon forget that opener and listen to the other tracks. However, it doesn’t take long before this familiarity gets at you, and I tend to think of how you learn that stealing is wrong; is that not applicable to the music scene? I’d rather see them doing covers than rewriting other songs, but none of that detracts from the fact that the album is pretty enjoyable to listen to. And if you are a fan of the two earlier releases by Autumn’s Child you will be a fan of this one as well – but for most it is a forgettable album that is fine to listen to for a while, but it doesn’t make much of an impression.

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