GRAND ILLUSION - review added 18th May 2010
Album Review: Brand New World (2010)
For fans of: Hard Rock... and a bit less pomp this time...
Grand Illusion. I Love 'em. I may only have heard one of their releases before now, but their 2004 album Ordinary Just Won't Do is one of my favourites of all time (see the review here). There are few albums I have listened to as many times over the years, and songs like 'Gone For Good', 'Heaven Or Hell', 'Back To Yesterday', and 'When You Were Mine' are still amongst my all-time best.
So...it was with some excitement I approached this album. The band went their separate ways after the last release, and it looked at the time like there wouldn't be another, Fortunately, vocalists Peter Sundell and Per Svensson, and guitar/bass/keyboard mastermind Anders Rydholm - along with guests Gregg Bissonette, Tim Pierce, Mike Slamer, Danny Jacob, Roger Ljunggren, and Kjell Klaesson - decided to give it another shot.
Is Brand New World as good as the last one? ...Nope, sadly not. It was never likely to be. However, it has grown on me in a big way. The first ten or so listens didn't do a lot, but with familiarity I have grown really rather fond of it. The sound and style is similar to last time, although some of the more 'pompous' parts have been replaced by either straight ahead hard rock or something more progressive. The performances are still first class too. Is there any singer with more top end power and beauty than Peter Sundell? I doubt it.
The first five songs are almost the equal of anything on the previous album. 'Burning Bed' is great, if a few notches behind. The title track is extremely pleasant, if too nice for its own good. 'Evil And Pain' is somewhere just above average. 'Warning Signs' is interesting, and has a fine chorus, but doesn't hit the heights this band is capable of. 'Playing With Fire' is much more like it, and comfortably shoulder-to-shoulder with the first five tracks. 'Sacrifice' is good in the general scheme of things, but ordinary by Grand Illusion standards (and we know that just won't do). Final track 'Forever With You' is a ballad that, on one hand, is the size of a small planet. On the other, it manages to be quite understated. Strange.
So... Overall, this is a disappointing follow-up to Ordinary Just Won't Do. Not because Grand Illusion have produced a bad album. Far from it. Brand New World is a disappointment because it had such a tough act to follow. Compared to the work of other bands, this is a superb album and one of the best so far this year. Serves them right for being so good last time I suppose!
Check out... All of it. And then the last album as comparison.
Track List:
01 Never Find Her Alone
02 All Out Of Love
03 157th Breakdown
04 Emily
05 I'm Alive
06 Burning Bed
07 Brand New World
08 Evil And Pain
09 Warning Signs
10 Playing With Fire
11 Sacrifice
12 Forever With You
Label: AOR Heaven
Artist's website(s): Grand Illusion , MySpace
