Heroes And Villains
FM
•
April 1, 2015

So many old bands are making a return and releasing new albums recently, it's almost like they were never gone sometimes. I was excited to grab this album from FM, my though was "right on, good old Classic Rock from Toronto!" Issue is that little to my knowledge, there's two classic bands called FM one from Toronto, the other from the UK, guess what one this is. So a little background, the UK FM are an AOR band, meaning they're radio Rock. There's nothing wrong with radio Rock, METALLICA did it with their self titled and "Load," which ironically every fan hates. Okay maaaaaybe radio Rock isn't always the way to go.
So here's the thing, let's have a little chat about "Fire And Rain" forth song off of the newest album "Heroes And Villains." This song gave off a sort of BON JOVI vibe at the beginning and I really like BON JOVI. The issue is the vocal style, it's not just with this song may I add, it's all of them. Vocalist Steve Overland has a very Pop sounding tone to every song, the kind of thing teenagers would sing along to for a week then forget about forever, "Incredible" is the same idea, slower acoustic song with a BON JOVI feel and a Pop tone to the vocals. At least in "Fire And Rain" the song is sort of saved by a pretty damn good guitar solo. If I had a suggestion I could throw to the band, it's not to drop the radio friendly Rock it's what gets kids into the better side of music. My suggestion is to stray away from what's popular, make your own popular. You don't need to follow the bands of today to get seen or get radio play, there's a reason albums these days are only listened to for about a week before there dropped, no one wants to do their own thing, everyone wants to sound like everyone else. When a new album drops the one from the week before is now ignored because the new album sounds the exact same with a different name.
Its AOR, radio Rock. If you like what you hear on the radio all the time check it out, you heard what I had to say even for an older band they're not straying from their comfort zone much. I'll give that the guitar solos are solid, but that's the most original part of the album.
2 / 10
What the Hell?

"Heroes And Villains" Track-listing:
1. Digging Up The Dirt
2. You're The Best Thing About Me
3. Life Is A Highway
4. Fire And Rain
5. Incredible
6. Call On Me
7. Cold Hearted
8. Shape I'm In
9. Big Brother
10. I Only Wanna Rock And Roll
11. I Want You
12. Walking With Angels
FM Lineup:
Steve Overland - Vocals, Guitars
Jim Kirkpatrick -Guitars, Vocals
Merv Goldsworth - Bass, Vocals
Pete Jupp - Drums, Vocals
Jem Davis - Keyboards
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