STONEFLOWER ‘Crack A Little Smile’ (Storyteller Records STCD1004) (2003) Whilst this album might be somewhat frozen in the eighties - that is no bad thing when there is a considerable vogue for this period, no doubt boosted up by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. There is nothing quite like "cruising" the highway to a heavy rock eighties backbeat. Stoneflower hail from Norway and they have certainly absorbed all their period influences. The whole album is very well produced and written, and many tracks have the energy and phrasing of the long-revered Dan Reed Network, others will have you mentally calling off your eighties melodic rock heroes. The band brings together several experienced musicians who started life in various native bands. "Crack A Little Smile" may not kick them into the big time, because for their genre the big time came and went a decade and a half a go. However, if you like thrusty, well played and, frankly, darned catchy melodic pop-rock, this could be something of a find. Stoneflower ga ut sin første plate i 2003 - Bandet fikk ikke den store responsen fra pressen her hjemme, men i utlandet falt deres melodiøse rock i smak hos de fleste store nettstedene for sjangeren :-) Nå er gutta snart klare med plate nr 2, og for alle som vokste opp med den melodiøse rocken på 80 - 90 tallet blir dette en go'bit !! Heading from Norway, Stoneflower are Frode Henriksen (vc), Jon Johannessen (gt), Tom Sennerud (gt) and Svenn Huneide (bs), with Steinar Krokstad (ex Vagabond and Stage Dolls) on drums and Dag Bårdstu on keyboards as guests. Their debut album collects more different genres, but all in all it is dominated by the melodic rock of the '80s with hints of Stage Dolls, Toto, Nelson, Rat Bat Blue and Michael Learns To Rock (for the poppier part), with great vocal parts, almost perfect arrangements and a natural inclination to write catchy songs. Opener "Rock My Nation" has a mind-catcher refrain and offer a light-AOR harmony, while following "Songs Of Love" is harder and looks at hard rock graced by immaculate melodic choruses and a fine Dag's solo. On "If U Say" and "Whenever" we can taste very commercial melodies recalling of first Boulevard's album and I'm not tired to listen to them again and again, but with refined "Only U" and "Sign On" Frode & Co offer the poppiest tunes with very lovely harmonies all around. "A Little Bit Of Money" follows the wake of Scandi-AOR with traces of Stage Dolls, Rat Bat Blue and Sons Of Angels, cheerful, catchy, well done; "Stop The Thunder" si more melodic rock and is followed (as usual) by a delicate ballad here called "Winter", based upond piano e voce (althought it was born from guitars). "Torn To Pieces" is a pompous and mighty song (catchy melodic rock again) that will satisfy the maniacs of the genre and "Rat Razor" is a quick closing tune and maybe also the only one below average. The only real pity is the sound, nice but could be better. A really fine cd that will make happy both ‘nostalgic’ of AOR/Melodic Rock and fans of more modern tendencies, anyway to write on your ‘buy list’. Contacts: www.stoneflower.no Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.