Groundbreaker: Groundbreaker

Let’s be honest shall we? There’s no way an album, or to be more honest, a project such as Groundbreaker could fail given the names involved. The golden voice of FM, Steve Overland, is for me, one of those singers who could sing the proverbial telephone book and I would still be interested and much as I love FM’s recent output it’s absolutely fantastic to hear the man wrap his tonsils around some 80s inflected tunes.

Robert Sall (Work of Art, W.E.T) is the other active member of the project and his work with both of his bands is stellar and he weaves his magic here especially on the opening triumvirate of "Over my Shoulder", "Will it Make You Love Me" and the exuberant "Eighteen ‘Til I Die". There is a case to be made that this is the best opening to any album in 2018 such is the quality, and the following song "Only Time Will Tell" is no slouch either. So many of these projects merely ape past glories of the melodic rock genre, however, this one actually seems fresher and more up-to-date and the much criticized Alessandro del Vecchio’s warm production must be given praise here. The key tune on the album’s second half is the single and the suitably big ballad "Something Worth Fighting For" which really touches an emotional high courtesy of Overland’s typically impassioned vocals. This is by far the best old school record put out by Frontiers Records in quite a while.

Track Listing:
1.Over My Shoulder
2.Will It Make You Love Me
3.Eighteen ‘Til I Die
4.Only Time Will Tell
5.Tonight
6.Standing Up For Love
7.Something Worth Fighting For
8.The Sound Of A Broken Heart
9.The First Time
10. The Days Of Our Life
11. The Way It Goes

Added: October 9th 2018
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Frontiers Records
Hits: 837
Language: english

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