Dane 'Ronnie Atkins', singer of 'Pretty Maids' and 'Nordic Union' offered us a first solo album 'One Shot' just a year ago, and it's with roughly the same artists that he offers us a second album 'Make It Count'. Music being the best therapy against the disease, he has concocted us melodic hard rock with 12 compositions which could each have been the subject of a single because he took particular care over the melodic lines with refrains that we immediately wants to hum on first listen.
From the start, we are greeted by a firework of unstoppable melodies with 'I've Hurt Myself (By Hurting You)' (see the video above), 'Unsung Heroes' (see the video here), 'Rising Tide' (see video here) and the mid-tempo 'Remain To Remind Me' all of which convey a blissful optimism that guides the peerless songwriter that is 'Ronnie Atkins', and this also appears in the lyrics of his songs. The suite continues on this rhythm with new melodic jewels in an atmosphere flirting with luminous AOR: 'The Tracks We Leave Behind' with its chorus to make an entire audience scream or catch them 'All I Ask of You' and 'Grace' also show this playful atmosphere that all these compositions give off. And when the ballad 'Let Love Lead the Way' arrives, we leave again on a small cloud and the chorus, classic but so effective, still works wonders. The end of the opus offers us an energetic 'Blood Cries Out', certainly the heaviest title of the album, then, 'Easier To Leave' and 'Fallen' return to harmonious and seductive AOR and the album ends on the title track (see the video here) which unfolds a final addictive melody, with a first part in the form of a ballad and a second which shows the same enthusiasm as the world anthem of 'Gloria Gaynor', certainly a nod to the title 'I Will Survive' which it appropriates and that's all we wish for it to win his fight against the disease.
In summary, 'Ronnie Atkins' does it again with a remarkable new album full of hits as if it were raining and 'Make It Count' should undoubtedly satisfy all fans of rock and melodic hard rock and become an essential album of this very endearing Danish singer... | |
