Review: AOR – Bewitched In L.A.

Perris Records (August 9^th 2023)

Reviewer: Jason Hopper

AOR is a band name I have heard bantered about in social media circles but not one that I had the opportunity to check out. Little did I know that the album I decided to review would be their 23^rd (!) release. They’ve only been around since the turn of the century. One album per year is quite prolific. A quick read of the promo material shows me what I had been missing all this time. Founding guitarist/keyboardist Frédéric Slama has played with some impressive musicians ranging from Steve Lukather, Steve Overland, Jeff Scott Soto, and many others. A real “who’s who” of the melodic rock world. I could not wait to check out what this record had in store for me.

Surprised is an understatement when describing my expectations vs. my experience. This is one of the most disappointing albums I’ve heard this year. I found myself cringing at times with lead singer Paul Sabu’s attempts to hit a higher register.

The realization that Paul was singing on this album gave me pause. While I am not familiar with his work, I have heard him being discussed with a degree of respect for certain projects. I did a quick search and decided to check out one of his former bands. The band Only Child caught my eye as someone posted about them recently on Facebook. After a few songs, the differences between that album and this one is night and day. He sounded invigorated, passionate, and frankly young in the late 80s. With this AOR album, he sounds tired and strained.  I don’t want to harp on age as a factor, but he simply cannot sing in the key that is demanded for most of these songs. You either lower the key for the singer or get someone who can sing at a higher octave.  He is simply the wrong singer for this material.

The only song I found to be somewhat decent was opening track ‘Behind Closed Doors’. Paul’s smokey voice fits the melody well.  It’s all downhill from there. ‘Dangerously Smart’ has a chorus so flat and uninspiring that I simply could not tolerate listening to it after three attempts to warm to the song. The next song is just as bad. ‘You Don’t Have to Tell Me Lies’ sees Paul stretching out the words in the chorus in a way that is auditorily displeasing. His screaming of the chorus towards the end trying to hit an upper register is intolerable and grating.

There’s no need to discuss more songs as the playing by the band is as generic as they come. It’s the type of situation where the music is so familiar that you feel like you’ve heard this album hundreds of times before because the rhythms are so common in the genre. There’s nothing new and exciting here.

I discussed this band with a friend and was told that their earlier material was much stronger. It certainly must be. This album is so mediocre I had no desire to check them out, so I’ll take his word for it. Perhaps Frédéric spread himself too thin releasing so many albums over such a short time. If you like their earlier material, I suggest you stick with that. If you really must have this album to maintain a collection, I implore you to check this out online first so that you know what you are spending your hard earned dollars on.

Tracklist:

1. Behind Closed Doors
2. Dangerously Smart
3. You Don’t Have to Tell Me Lies
4. Stolen Future
5. Manifestation of Human Desires
6. Frozen Soul
7. Private Number
8. Breaking the Rules
9. Never Give Up on Love