serpentine living and dying in high definition

Released: 29 August 2011 Label: AOR Heaven

Flying the flag for UK AOR, we have new band Serpentine, featuring the high, clean vocals of TNT frontman Tony Mills. This, their second major output, features all the good things from their previous opus A Touch of Heaven, but with a bit more maturity and focus, as befits a second album.

For those who are seriously into their AOR, this is probably a great piece of work. For this writer, however, the music is generic and the vocals irritating. Tony takes his voice right into the upper register at every opportunity, which is a shame, because Best Days of Our Lives proves that he can sing well in the middle range, and there’s no need to pull his trousers in to get up to the top to produce a performance.

There’s some good harmony work going on, but unusually and I guess unsurprisingly, the harmonic vocal is lower than the lead. Keys and guitars are crisp and drums are solid, so the musicianship can’t be faulted.

Production on the album is beautiful, crystal clear and balanced. It is a good piece of work, but for me, it’s bland.

I feel that fans of 80s AOR will appreciate this more than anyone else.

by Alan Thomson