HOUSE OF SHAKIRA LIVE + Indie - HOS 001 Produced by: House Of Shakira Released: OUT NOW / Website Closest Relative: Journey GENRE: AOR

OVERALL: 82%

Alien Wings In Your Head Black And Blue Skies Nearly Orgasmic Miracle Morning Over Morocco Elephant Gun Method Of Madness Pellucid Stone In Love* Seperate Ways* Seven Bridges Road*	Shame on me for not reviewing this earlier! House Of Shakira are good friend to this site and have never failed to deliver with their studio albums. These young lads are one of the brightest talents on the AOR scene, with a knack of writing infectious melodies, while also trying new tricks within a tried and true format. They have a great sound and a great following. Live + is a nice thank you from the band - available only through their website, but not the budget release you might expect. That is of course, depending on your view of things. Personally I love live albums to be as raw as dogs balls, with mistakes and out of tune solo's left in tact, as performed on any given night. I don't detect any out of tune solo's here, but it sure is raw and 100% live. This audio is a nice capture of the guys live, devoid of overdubs and therefore full of energy. Pontus Norgren is the live engineer, so it should be no surprise why it sounds so good. The songs are great, although considerably less polished than the studio versions.
The band run through 10 of their favourite songs, from the heavy Wings, to the very heavy Black And Blue Skies, to the totally commercial In Your Head, to the wonderfully over the top melodic rock anthem Method Of Madness. Just for good measure the band have thrown in their very competent cover versions of the Journey classics Stone In Love and Separate Ways. A second bonus is a new acoustic cover of the song Seven Bridges Road. BOTTOM LINE: Sure enough this is mainly a fans only release, but the atmosphere is so good that any others that might catch an earful could be converted to the charms of these Swedish AOR Gods. Bring on the new studio album already!! For those that love their live albums raw and 100% in your face!
PRODUCTION: 75%	SONGS: 90%	VIBE: 80%	ATTITUDE: 80%
ESSENTIAL FOR: All House Of Shakira fans, some Journey fans.
DISCOGRAPHY:Lint . One The Verge . Best Of 2 . III . Live +