COVERED CALL — Money Never Sleeps (review)

COVERED CALL — Money Never Sleeps album cover

Album · 2009 · Hard Rock

4/5 · 2011-03-16
Stephen

A comical character with cold sweat on his forehead seeing a major plunge of the stock market is the front cover of a Swedish melodic rock project, Covered Call, which was started by drummer Ronny Svanströmer and guitarist Joel Carlsson. What makes it interesting is the addition of the talented singer, Thomas Vikström, who's also fronting Therion. Covered Call's music is in the same league as The Poodles, Rockarma, Bon Jovi, or White Lion. Rooted heavily in 80s hard rock with a sensible touch of melodies, "Money Never Sleeps" is a record lush of joyful vibes and enthralling vocal harmonies, I don't think you can even find a lot of minor chords inside, every little thing sounded euphoric.

The best thing of this album is when you roll on from the very first track to the bottom, you just can't seem to find anything bad inside. If I have to pick the strongest tracks, my fingers will be pointed at "Til The End", the tight verse and brilliant anthemic chorus is untouchable; the nicely done cover of Mr.Big's "Shine"; "Nothing At All" with a thick scent of early White Lion; and the last two tracks, "What About Us" and "Let's Make It Real". The mandatory ballad, "Anything You Want", is somewhat likeable as well, an emotional piece of vocal/piano that also reminded me of Stryper's style at "My Love I'll Always Show".

Thomas Vikström is a real deal, he definitely has the beautiful pipes, I remember a memorable song, "Undercover Love" from his old band, Talk of The Town, back in 1988, a great song, and a great album it is, you wouldn't expect him singing in a band like this if you recognized him from Candlemass or Therion. Something troubling is probably the lack of variety in the arrangement, the vibe is too similar, and there's an eminent danger of this record started wearing thin after repetitive listening. However, like I've mentioned before, and I'm gonna mention it again, Covered Call's debut offered a very solid and strong songwriting and deserved a big praise. I really expect them to continue releasing albums, hopefully in a year or two, I can see a sequel in an even better shape.

more than 2 years ago
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Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

You're not alone, mate :-)

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

cool stuff bro since i thought i was the only one consuming melodic thing here lol

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I like a lot of melodic hard rock, actually - heck, I even like Bon Jovi's "New Jersey" and Def Leppard's "Hysteria" ;-)

I know it's very far from Napalm Death and Suffocation, but my taste in metal is very broad, as is my taste in music in general - between us (and the rest of MMA), I actually own Ace of Base's "Happy Nation", and there are actually three songs on it that I like (the rest is crap though).

One of the things that I like about Covered Call is the catchiness of the vocal melodies and the overall uplifting atmosphere on the album.

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

hi Kim, i'm pretty surprised you dig this as I thought this wasn't your cup of tea, but yup, they got the potential, the vocal is great, lookin forward to the next release :)

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I agree that this is a very good album. I think that some of the energy kind of wanes away towards the end, which could be because of the lack of variation that you mention.