80/100
The fifth Lionville album in 9 years sees a drop in quality in both songwriting and production values from their quite marvellous 4th album and indeed, the 3 that preceded that.
The usually divine vocals of Lars Safsund (Work Of Art) seem a little lost in the keyboard heavy mix here and are certainly not as sharp and decisive as we’re used to.
Songwriting seems to be stuck in auto-pilot here – there’s nothing that differs in any way from the material already delivered – and as pointed out, in better quality.
The opening track features the vocal talents of Robbie LaBlanc in a duet performance that overshadows Lars’ own vocal.
It’s still one of the better pure-Euro AOR albums and bands around, with Stefano Lionetti, and Lars doing their best to deliver on what was probably a reduced recording budget.
Andrew:
With all due respect, I don’t know what you listened to….or did you listen to this album only once? Lionville is one of my favorite bands on earth, so maybe I’m biased, but when I listened to this new album for the first time, I felt somewhat similar to you. I didn’t feel that the songs on this new album were anywhere as good as their previous albums. In fact, I felt that the last song, the title track, “So Close to Heaven” was a bust because it was so “fast!” Then, I went and listened to the entire album a second and third time and more, and it became a classic to me! I wanted more ballads, but when I began to dig in to the lyrics of each song (not sure why Lenny Macaluso wrote the majority of songs on this album), I was so happy! Perhaps it isn’t at the top of their discography, but it is still better than the “80” score you gave it. It’s at least at “90” in my eyes. I even changed my tune on the last song, So Close to Heaven. I’ve listened to it again and it is so high energy, jubilant and exceptional. Please give it another few listens. This band deserves MUCH more accolades from you and the industry.
I never listen to any album I review “once”. And I stand by the review. Their weakest album with a truly poor drum sound.