LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles

“This style of music gave me the desire to become a professional musician, the one that got stuck into my heart in my early days. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna stay there forever” – Michele Luppi

Michele Luppi is the voice of the newly founded band Los Angeles that just released a self-titled record. Most people will know him as the singer of the Power/Progressive band Vision Divine. Luppi has a softer side as well, which he has shown of earlier with the album Strive and now this record. Los Angeles is considered to be his tribute to the AOR legends that inspired him to become what he is; known as the greatest Rock singer in Italy. The band consists of some very fantastic musicians: Tommy Denander on guitars, Fabrizio Grossi on bass, Frankie De Grasso on drums, Greg Giuffria and Jamie Teramo on keyboards. You’ll also find Mordi Hauser and Joey Sykes on additional guitars.

This album begins with an outstanding AOR track. The opening song “I Will Carry You” starts out with a Power Metal-based intro; a little medieval inspired and kind of Blind Guardian related. Then the band comes in playing a very catchy melody with a guitar in the lead. Michele Luppi does an incredible vocal job! He has a high-pitched, beautiful voice that gets you from the very beginning of the album. The rest of the band sounds terrific and tight. They really deliver some nice music, and what awesome, polished sound the music features! The following track is another great AOR masterpiece: “I Must Be Blind.” Once again they toss you a fantastic song with an extremely catchy and chimerical refrain. The vocal harmonies are outstanding! Great arrangements! The guitar solo is just boring, maybe because of the nowhere-going guitar sound.

“Edge Of Forever” has the atmospheric sound that makes you drift away into a peaceful time, forgetting everything else. You’re inside the power of the music. This track is an unbelievable 80s power ballad and the vocals are half the pleasure in listening to this record! Luppi has a very remarkable voice and does also impress in another great ballad as well later on in the record, a song that is called ”When You Think Of Me.” This is a very laidback tune, totally dominated by comprehensive and wonderful vocal harmonies. It sure has a very standard chord progression, but after all; originality is not always the key to success!

The album itself is not a blast. The first half of the record is interesting, but then you get the same all over again in the other songs. It’s also a little irritating when every song, from track 1-5, starts out with very similar guitar riffs. They changed the paragon after those songs, fortunately! Anyway, the record does have its moments as well with a lot of catchy melodies that explode into fantastic vocal harmonies and chimerical melodies that feature terrific production from the beginning to the very end! Los Angeles is a band with great, talented musicians and they do indeed show off their qualities and their abilities to play AOR as well as their other respective projects. This record is a record meant to be a show off for Luppi’s voice, and it definitely turned out that way! Unfortunately, it is too monotone and can become uninteresting too fast. It’s a well performed record, that’s for sure, but it’s not overly engaging.