{"id":43814,"date":"2014-08-12T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=43814"},"modified":"2014-08-12T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T13:00:02","slug":"houston-relaunch-ii-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/houston-relaunch-ii-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston | Relaunch II<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"HoustonBack in 2011, Swedish AOR sensation Houston followed up their acclaimed self-titled debut with a collection of covers (and a few extras), titled Relaunch<\/em>. Now with two full-length albums out, Houston is going back to that idea with Relaunch II<\/em>, a 10-song collection of cover songs and new original material.<\/p>\n

On Relaunch<\/em>, Houston paid tribute to some really deep cuts of classic AOR artists, including Michael Bolton, Airrace, Touch and New England. With Relaunch II<\/em>, Houston takes \u2026 a different approach. Sure they give us covers of vintage John Farnham, John O\u2019Banion and Rick Springfield songs, but they also try their hand at covering more recent pop and country hits by One Republic, Lady Gaga and (shudder) Florida Georgia Line. You have to give them credit for taking a chance, but it doesn\u2019t always pay off. Their version of \u201cCounting Stars\u201d isn\u2019t bad, but it feels like a karaoke version, not something with Houston\u2019s own style. The cover of Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cDo What You Want\u201d is a duet with Lizette Von Panajott, and while you hear Houston\u2019s sound coming through, the dance peppiness is jarring alongside all that polished Swedish AOR. Their version of \u201cCruise\u201d will likely be the worst thing you hear all year, but it\u2019s such a painfully \u201cWal-Mart country\u201d song in the first place there was really no hope for it.<\/p>\n

Relaunch II\u2019s<\/em> saving grace \u2013 aside from the more traditional AOR covers, which are done quite well – is the four brand new Houston songs. They\u2019re in keeping with the style we fell in love with on Houston and Houston II, and if they\u2019re a hint to what we might expect from the band\u2019s third full-length, we don\u2019t have anything to worry about. <\/p>\n

Needless to say, Relaunch II<\/em> is a mixed bag. Even with a couple of awkward (or downright terrible) songs, there is still a lot to love here. \u201cDowntown\u201d and \u201cOur Love\u201d are worth the price of admission by themselves, and Rick Springfield\u2019s \u201cSouls\u201d sounds like it was written specifically for Houston. If you\u2019re already a fan of the band, you need to pick up a copy of Relaunch II<\/em>. If you\u2019re new to the band but are a fan of Toto-style AOR with a modern touch (think Work of Art or Lionville), you definitely want to check out Houston. Just start with one of their proper full-length albums before giving Relaunch II<\/em> a go.<\/p>\n

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

Lineup:
\nHank Erix (v)
\nRicky Delin (k) (v)
\nSoufian Ma\u2019Aoui (b)
\nCalle Hammar (g) (v)
\nVictor Lundberg (k) (v)
\nOscar Lundstrom (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\nJustice For One (John Farnham cover)
\nLove Is Blind (John O\u2019Banion cover)
\nCounting Stars (One Republic cover)
\nSouls (Rick Springfield cover)
\nDon\u2019t Look Back
\nCruise (Florida Georgia Line cover)
\nDo What You Want (Lady Gaga cover)
\nOur Love
\nDowntown
\nStanding On the Moon<\/p>\n

Label: Cargo<\/p>\n

Website: www.houstonsweden.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Back in 2011, Swedish AOR sensation Houston followed up their acclaimed self-titled debut with a collection of covers (and a few extras), titled Relaunch. Now with two […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[8939,9809,2317,9807,2901,9808],"class_list":{"0":"post-43814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-aor","9":"tag-cargo","10":"tag-cd-review","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-melodic-rock","13":"tag-relaunch-ii"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43814","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=43814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}