Whilst this album might be somewhat frozen in the eighties - that is no bad thing when there is a considerable vogue for this period, no doubt boosted up by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. There is nothing quite like "cruising" the highway to a heavy rock eighties backbeat.

Stoneflower hail from Norway and they have certainly absorbed all their period influences. The whole album is very well produced and written, and many tracks have the energy and phrasing of the long-revered Dan Reed Network, others will have you mentally calling off your eighties melodic rock heroes. The band brings together several experienced musicians who started life in various native bands.

"Crack A Little Smile" may not kick them into the big time, because for their genre the big time came and went a decade and a half a go. However, if you like thrusty, well played and, frankly, darned catchy melodic pop-rock, this could be something of a find.

Website

Rock My Nation
© 2003 Stoneflower/Storyteller Records. All rights reserved.

****

Review by David Randall