Music Banter - View Single Post - 12 For '12: Anteater's Top Albums Of 2012

Anteater · 12-22-2012, 02:28 PM

Enjoy it Pete!

7. Sonic Station - Sonic Station

Although neither dead, dying nor devoid of compelling material if you know where (and how) to look, AOR is one of those genres where the pickings seem to stay relatively slim from year to year. Like progressive rock, it gets ignored by anyone who isn't savvy with the genre already by the time people put together their end of the year lists. There's a lot I could say, positive and not, about the implications of this indifference in regards to a lot of people here on MB and the music-listening world in general, but that's not the purpose of this review and thus I'll get to the point: there IS such a thing as a good modern AOR record, and this Swedish studio project's debut self-titled sets an excellent example of how it can be done.

Sonic Station is a years-in-making music endeavor by guitarist Alexander Kronbrink, who's also the chief songwriter and (to a degree) producer. After meeting singer Marika Willstedt during college, they began collaborating and bringing in various musicians and guest vocalists over the next couple of years, culminating with the debut's release back in February. The amount of work that's gone into this musical production is astounding: every skeptic I've shown this record to, even the 80's adverse among them, were impressed by how gorgeous the mixing is from song-to-song, and in this genre that's a factor that can go a lonnng way...even making up for weak songwriting at times.

Thankfully, the eleven songs that comprise the LP are not only fairly muscular on the melodic front, there's variety from cut to cut too! 'Intro', a deep synth concoction that melds some heavenly horns with Kronbrink's pedaled out axework segues into 'Love's Gonna Show The Way', a bouncy Toto/Journey hybrid brimming with cheesy but heartfelt optimism and an insidious hook to boot.

Many a band would be fine copying 'Love's Gonna Show The Way' eight more times with slight deviations and call it a day at the studio, but Alexander goes above and beyond throughout: 'Never Let The Sunshine Die' is an epic that distills the best of Whitesnake and The Eagles into something that would probably blow down the house at a live setting, whilst some L.A. Westcoast stylistic touches light up 'My Last Refrain' and 'Reasons' into an FM balladeer's wet dream. The previously mentioned Marika Willstedt is lead vocalist on both of these numbers, and I guess there's a reason she's a T.V. megastar in the Netherlands: she's blessed with some godly pipes, and knows how to get the best outta 'em.

For some people, especially around here, admitting that you like 80's rock in good ol' 2012 is the equivalent to admitting you have a drinking problem: pulling teeth is almost easy in comparison. Records like this, however, might make such a confession far easier....if given a fair shake that is.