An album that has many flaws.

Another new name on the Frontiers label, Prime Suspect are an Italian melodic rock band built around members of the recording project Khymera, with EmptyTremor/Genius keyboard player Danielle Liverani joined by guitarist Tommy Ermolli, drummer Dario Ciccioni, bassist Mauro Catellani and German singer Olaf Senkbeil (Dreamtide). It’s perhaps ironic that the press release should mention that LIverani formed the band after Tom & James Martin’s songs were chosen for most of the last couple of Khymera releases, and then the Prime Suspect album is released on the same day as the Martin’s new band Vega’s debut, and on the same label. I think it’s fair to say that even though the two operate in roughly the same genre, the similarities are actually few and far between.

Prime Suspect are actually a light AOR band who sometimes border on Westcoast, with excellent musicianship and a cool and subtle style that doesn’t fill the ears with a million overdubs and leaves plenty of space for the songs to breathe. Most of the songs subscribe to the laid-back verse and big chorus school, like the upbeat opener ‘What Do You Want’, the tasteful pop melodies of ‘It Could’ve Been You’ and the smooth harmonies of ‘Deep In My Heart’, all of which have nice instrumental breaks that are quite original for this style. Elsewhere the ballad ‘I Never Knew’ is a good song with some tasteful guitar from Ermolli and ‘Watch Me’ is as aggressive as it gets with a great riff and solo and a vocal that brings Styx guitarist James Young to mind.

As much as I enjoy all the songs above I also think that Prime Suspect have delivered an album that has many flaws, amongst them the vocals of Olaf Senkbeil, who in addition to having a strong accent at times, is also pretty flat when using his lower register. The verse to ‘Change The World’ and the odd melodies of ‘I’ll Be Fine’ and the aptly titled ‘So Strange’ are simply too weak for a band who can write songs like ‘What Do You Want’ and ‘I Never Knew’, which along with some pretty inane lyrics will mean that about a third of this album will be dumped the next time I update my iTunes library.
There’s too much good stuff here to write the band off completely. It’s just a shame that some very good ideas haven’t been fully realised.

Phil Ashcroft