Music Banter - View Single Post - Anteater's 30 (ish) Favorite Albums Of 2014

Anteater · 01-03-2015, 10:18 PM

2. Work Of Art - Framework

Put On A Playlist With: Toto, Journey, Tim Feehan, A-ha

Pure 80's radio-rock perfection, 'nuff said. I've reviewed some of this Swedish melodic rock power trio's previous material in the past, but I couldn't lay enough superlatives on this latest release even if I had a dictionary in front of me. Guitarist Robert Sall has a songwriting and performance sensibility at this point that I'd argue is right on par with Toto's Steve Lukather and other L.A. axe heavyweights like Michael Landau and Dan Huff, all of whom are considered the elite among elite. Guys who have played on hundreds of albums basically. Couple that with the dominating vocals of Lars Safsund and the expert drumming of Hermin Furin...the results are superb.

Smply put, Framework is the ideal AOR album: every song has a kick-in-the-face immediacy in the hooks department, is painstakingly put together and never falls too far back into cheese. Even the obligatory power ballad 'Hold On To Love' has such a tasty arrangement that you can't help but like it just the teensiest bit, and I've got high standards when it comes to my schlock damn it!

The thing that's most interesting about Work Of Art at this point is you can tell these guys are so technically skilled that they could be doing jazz-rock or even progressive rock stuff if they wanted to. Robert Sall's guitar and synth leads are pristine and technically challenging, Safsund has a lot of range and versatility, and any band that can cut as good an AOR opening set as 'Time To Let Go' and the infectious Journey-esque 'How Will I Know' is capable of blowing a few minds if they set out to do longer songs.

All that being said, as much as I'd love to see these guys start moving into a more experimental direction, I can't deny that Framework is one of the best albums in the AOR style since atleast the early 90's. Their last two albums were quite strong too, but these guys have refined their particular brand of melodic science to the point of lethality...and I'm just happy to have been along for the ride.