Band:	Hope
Album:	All Of My Days
Style:	Adult Oriented rock
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. I Want You
02. Why Don't We Talk About It
03. All Of My Days
04. Bring Down The Stars
05. You Could Be Mine
06. See The Sign
07. Come Alive
08. I'm Free
09. Somebody
10. Baby Don't Cry
11. Saving All My Love

Even if it's not so trendy to release AOR and Melodic Rock albums, they're still some labels which believe in the genre and Escape Music is one of them. One of their last signatures comes from Sweden and its name is Hope. Composed of two ex members of Down Patrol (Henrik Thomsen and Imre Daun) plus their mate Mats Johanson, this new trio will try to convince all the people who don't believe anymore in the genre that it's still possible to do such kind of music nowadays. You know what, they do it well but even if "All Of My Days" won't hurt anybody, this is not so transcending too. Not because this is bad, at the opposite but because we've seen it all before and this new release simply doesn't give anything new but after all you're maybe not here to discover news things so?

If you like catchy lovely tiny melodies, "All Of My Days" is a must. The first album of the Swedish trio is not bad at all, of course you'll have to like songs made by "lovers" but if you're into cool Rock and live love stories, you'll maybe like this release. The melodies are cool, you'll be able to find ballads of course like mid-tempo songs or stuff a bit more excited (but just a bit, even Bon Jovi sounds like Exodus if you compare both bands). This is catchy and the melodies are nice all in all and it's funny to listen to songs like "See The Sign" which is clearly influenced by U2 or "I Want You" which reminds me Brian Adams!

Talking about Brian Adams, it's just impossible to avoid any comparisons with the Canadian singer, star of the 90's. The voice of Henrik Thomsen just sounds like his voice and actually that's quite a good voice. Add that the performances of the other musicians are really good and solid and that the production is top-notch and you probably understand that this release is more than correct. But, and that's a big "but", the originality is near of zero and I doubt that a lot of people will be surprised by this release. After all if you're already into AOR stuff you probably have something which is clearly similar to "All Of My Days". Too bad that the band didn't find the way to be a bit more innovative and unique?

The conclusion is simple here, "All Of My Days" is not a bad release and Hope is composed of great musicians but their music is just a bit outdated and especially banal? I don't, I'm quite sure that they will find fans anyway but if you're looking for something special this is just not for you. On the other hand, if you're a lover and want to give some roses to your girly, this is probably the best album to accomplish this mission (if she is not a fan of Morbid Angel of course?).