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Could it be that the reason why Xinema
is a trio is because these Swedish guys are signed to a Canadian
label, home for Rush ? Respect for Geddy Lee and friends or not,
their musical offering is less hard than that of their ‘big’
brothers. In fact their musical structures tend to have more in
common with AOR in the Toto, Starship tradition than the metal
direction. Mikael Askemur’s lead vocals tend to swim between that of
John Wetton and A-Ha’s Morten Harkett giving the music a certain
acceptable commercial feel. In fact some of the tunes they deliver
could easily have been recorded by an early Asia ! In ‘Timing’ the
rhythm is programmed giving it a tremendous speed. The way ‘One day’
sounds this could well be a composition from one of Sting’s glorious
solo albums.
At times it has to be said, Mikael’s
voice loses at a bit of certainty especially when there’s little
arrangement backing him. ‘Across the Styx’ sounds like a Barclay
James Harvest acoustic song or a John Lees solo composition
accompanied by some wonderful guitar courtesy of Sven Larsson.
Towards the end it’s like real dolphins come to have their say !
With ‘Distant lights’ Xinema indeed gets close to the feel of a solo
John Wetton once again sporting some nice and convincing guitar with
a decent amount of Vai characteristics. Pity the acoustic
guitarparts are often played on a keyboard which of course does not
give the same depth as if an original instrument would be used.
Xinema certainly must have thought to leave the best till last as
they have done exactly that. ‘Blind is the light’ is indeed an ace
song delivering the goods in exactly the way we want it. They even
get the sound of a donkey in ! The longest track on the album and
certainly the very best offering from this superb new band. |
