Band: AOR
Album title: Journey to L.A.
Label : Escape Music
Distributor: Escape Music – Connecting Music
Release date: 28/08/2009

 Frederic Slama is back with a new album...and his obession with the City of Angels (L.A.) is still very vivid. In terms of album titles he is getting a bit predictable. The new album "Journey to L.A. features (once again) an incredible cast from the AOR/Westcoast music scene, including Tommy Denander (Radioactive), Steve Overland (FM), Dane Donohue, Bill Champlin (Chicago), Fergie Frederiksen & Steve Lukather (Toto), Philip Bardowell (The Beach Boys, Places Of Power) to name but a few.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with AOR/Westcoast genre ...this is your change to go on discovery journey. Some critics say that "Journey to L.A." is his most impressive and melodic album so far mixing elements of Westcoast with more AOR rock oriented songs."Close to perfection" some others say..time to find out for yourself

Fom a musical point of view you can compare AOR with bands such as Toto, Foreigner, Richard Marx and Survior.
So do not expect heavy headbanging material but rather melodic rock.

On the opening track "Waiting in the Darkness" Steve Overland from FM is doing his best from a vocal point of view to lift the song to a higher level, but the song itself remains a bit average. The next song "Don't turn back" has a slightly different sound. This track undeniably carries a Power of places mark thanks to the vocals of Philip Bardowell.  "Love remains the same" slows down the musical pace set by the first 2 tracks, but like the first song it remains average. The first highlight on the album is "Read the signs". The chorus is very catchy and lingers on and  the guitars are truely superb. The sound of "Just for love" balances between Toto and Survivor. "Desparate dreams" is another mediocre song. It has some nice guitar passages but I can not help to skip to the next song. "Never Surrender" is the second highlight on the album. Great guitars throughout the song (8 minutes) and again a catchy chorus....not sure who is doing the vocals on this track but it is a bit rougher and heavier then the first part of the album. "The view of you" has a Foreigner touch, and "Heartless" reminds me of Survivor. Not sure how to describe "West into the sun" as it sounds very different then all the rest...Musically "Lost in you eyes" is undeniably Toto but the vocals are not. The final track "You're my obessesion" is an instrumental masterpiece .

Good Job Frederic & Co ....already looking out for the next "...LA...." album.

 80/100

 Filip Van de Gaer.