SILENCE UTOPIA MTM Music Produced by: Bruno Levesque Released: OUT NOW / Website Closest Relative: ? GENRE: AOR

OVERALL: 70%

Do Not Love A New Freedom Why Not Today Come Back No Life On Planet Earth Down Utopia (Part 1&2) Against The Wind Chinese Lullaby Far Beyond The Lighthouse Strange Sounds Kids In America Consolation	Silence are very much in a similar vein to Germany's Dominoe, except these guys are from France. And again, like Dominoe, the vocals and feel are very European, with the lead vocals especially influenced by an accent. But, musically this is better than Dominoe and might better suit music fans looking for some catchy European AOR. The band features vocalist Jerome Cazard and Bruno Levesque, who is responsible for most of the instruments and production on the record. Again, the sound is very sweet and the vocals are in the higher pitch range. But the music behind the vocals is a lot stronger than Dominoe. There's some light progressive guitar moments, some interesting song arrangements and above all, stronger performances and better songs. A New Freedom is a great example of feel good European AOR, with a big anthem chorus. I would hesitate to add that the band's cover of Kids In America doesn't really work, providing an unnecessary variation to the sound of the rest of the album. Interestingly this is the first Silence album to feature a vocalist! The first two are all instrumental affairs.
BOTTOM LINE: Aside from that, the album has several other high spots (Come Back for example) and should please most fans of light hearted melodic rock. One small note - the length of the songs (nothing under 4 minutes 30 apart from a brief instrumental) means the album's pace drags a little. At 13 tracks (many over 5 minutes in length), the album is about 15 minutes too long.
PRODUCTION: 80%	SONGS: 80%	VIBE: 70%	ATTITUDE: 75%
ESSENTIAL FOR: Fans of European AOR and fans of AOR with a slight musical twist.
DISCOGRAPHY:The Fifth Season . Trouble In Paradise . Utopia .