AOR - L.A. Concession (CD)

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This release - a re-release, to be more precise - has nearly nothing to do with the music 'taste' of the magazine, as it's calm enough even for fans with the likes of the Frontiers/AOR Heaven/MTM catalogue series. Still, two references are worth the notice:
French musician Frederic Slama stands behind AOR. Fond of the West Coast/AOR 'stream' of the late 70s/early-to-mid 80s in the US, he formed this 'one man' project and has already released a series of such albums, making use of the session help of many worldwide famous artists. See e.g. the list above and mark the 'sting' of renowned players like Tommy Denander, Steve Lukather, Michael Thompson, Tony Franklin, Jeff Porcaro and Gregg Bissonette. This goes for the lovers of 'who plays where' approach.
L.A. Concession was originally released in 2000 as a self-financed effort. Now reissued - via the MTM Classix series - it bears four more tunes; a good gift for lovers of the style. And what's this style? To cut a long story short - and, also, to clear out the 'West Coast' mode - imagine the likes of bands such as 'poppy' Toto/Survivor, 'mellow' Journey/Bad English/Foreigner, Richard Marx, Mr. Mister, 'moody' Aldo Nova/Drive, She Said, Eric Martin and the rest goes 'boom'.
Wrapping it up, you got the idea on how 'sweet' AOR's music is. Applicable for 100% sentimental (now called) Melodic Rock lovers, Frederic Slama's project is - should be noted - completely honest (the man has done a marvelous job promoting West Coast/AOR music to France all these years as a journalist/writer).