{"id":18013,"date":"2012-02-08T20:49:25","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T01:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=18013"},"modified":"2013-01-28T11:22:02","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T16:22:02","slug":"sonic-station-sonic-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/sonic-station-sonic-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonic Station | Sonic Station<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\nStaff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Sonic Station is a new West Coast (by way of Sweden) AOR project put together by guitarist\/composer\/producer Alexander Kronbrink and smooth jazz keyboardist Jonathan Fritzen. Now if you read \u201cWest Coast\u201d and \u201csmooth jazz\u201d and started feeling drowsy, you\u2019re not alone. The whole West Coast \u201cyacht rock\u201d sound is pretty damned mellow in the first place, so adding soothing saxophone solos isn\u2019t going to help much. Still, the fact that Sonic Station\u2019s self-titled debut is on the Frontiers label is reason enough to give it a shot. <\/p>\n

Once you clear the three-minute instrumental introductory track, \u201cGonna Show the Way\u201d tells you just about everything you need to know about Sonic Station. It\u2019s a fusion of AOR, pop and jazz (the kind they play in dentist offices, not the fun stuff you\u2019d hear at a bar), and at its most rocking, it\u2019s about as aggressive as the average Toto album. This isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing if bands like Work of Art and Lionville are your cup of weak, watered-down tea, but it\u2019s not a selling point for those looking for some rock in their melodic rock. The players involved are all very good musicians, and the songwriting and production jobs are first rate. At the end of the day though, this is a cross between pure Toto worship and a soap opera soundtrack, and a little of that goes a long way.<\/p>\n

The Sonic Station debut features four different vocalists: Tove Lo, Kristoffer Fogelmark, Magnus Blacklund and Swedish television star Marika Willstedt. All four vocalists have strong, distinct voices, and all four get a chance to shine. They all fare best on the more upbeat, rocking songs, but Willstedt in particular can pull off a weepy ballad better than her male counterparts. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to give Sonic Station a very enthusiastic recommendation. For what it is, it\u2019s not bad at all, and those of you who loved Lionville and Work of Art ought to love it. It makes the latest releases from Kimball-Jamison and Fergie Fredericksen seem almost like metal albums though. You\u2019ve been warned.<\/p>\n

Genre: AOR, Melodic Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAlexander Kronbrink (g)
\nJonathan Fritzen (k)
\nHenrik Linder (b)
\nAron Mellergard (d)
\nMarika Willstedt (v)
\nMagnus Backlund (v)
\nKristoffer Fogelmark (v)
\nTove Lo (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tIntro
\n2.\tGonna Show the Way
\n3.\tI Wish I Could Lie
\n4.\tHold On To Me
\n5.\tYou Have To Let Me Go
\n6.\tThe Most Beautiful Fear
\n7.\tRunning Through the Night
\n8.\tNever Let the Sunshine Die
\n9.\tMy Last Refrain
\n10.\tLove You More
\n11.\tReasons<\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers<\/p>\n

Website: www.sonic-station.com<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 6\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines Staff Writer — Sonic Station is a new West Coast (by way of Sweden) AOR project put together by guitarist\/composer\/producer Alexander Kronbrink and smooth jazz keyboardist Jonathan Fritzen. Now if you read […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[2102,2901],"class_list":{"0":"post-18013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-frontiers","8":"tag-melodic-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}