The Night Flight Orchestra - Internal Affairs

[Glen]

This pretty much came out of the blue for me, having been released earlier in the year. This is a rollercoaster retro 70s influenced rock n roll ride. The most surprising thing is the line up including none other than Björn “Speed” Strid (the voice of SOILWORK), bass courtesy of Sharlee D'Angelo (ARCH ENEMY!!) and unique sound of the Richard Larsson on keyboards. There are so many influences going on here – I hear bits of Kiss, Nightranger, 10CC, ELO, early REO, Styx, Journey, BOC, you name it, its here. Strid's vocals here are a far cry from his work with Soilwork coming over a cross between Gregg Rolie and James Young.

 

Here’s my tracks by track –

 

1. Siberian Queen – (9.0) Classic riff opens and immediate retro feel with Strid vocals – cool but simple chorus hook. Whole song is rounded off with a killer solo where strid loses control. Great start

 

2. California Morning – (9.5) Whole vibe of the song is encapsulated in that opening flurry of riff (very Kiss) and piano…uptempo, breezy, cool. Great chorus…the outro is pure early 80s Nightranger with that twin guitar sound. Love it.

 

3. Glowing City Madness – (9.5) Great song title. Man I love this ballad or sorts. Lyrically perfect. Stylewise very Journey Evolution era, with a hint of blues. Solo is short but perfect formed…just a cool song period – I mean what song these days ends with a violin outro. Genius.

 

4. West Ruth Ave – (10) Wow, how the hell do you describe this song? Marvellous hooky chorus with falsetto, subtle backing vox providing harmonies and that classic 70s sounding verse. Oh and killer solo. The outro is just stunning – 1.5 minutes of crescendo of wailing guitars – just brilliant.

 

5. Transatlantic Blues – (10) How do you follow that? Easy, with possibly my fav song of the whole year! An 8 mins epic which starts out all dreamy (almost ELO ish) before morphing into a retro Sabbath like riff around 4 mins and then at 6 mins killer Schon like guitar solo before rounding off with that chorus again which is like BOC or something – the whole thing is just perfect!

 

6. Miami 5.02 – (9.0) This time its Van Halen intro…urgent verse with Hammond overtones. Short but cool chorus – another winner…effortless stuff.

 

7. Internal Affairs – (8.75) Complete change of style again – now its west coast with a Steely Dan feel and a hint of orchestra! Almost 10CC in the verse with a another very cool vibe going on in the chorus. Solo is perfect for the song once again and Strid sounds great.

 

8. 1998 – (9.25) Strid sounds more Billy Joel here. Again uptempo beat, excellent chorus and great lyrics. Real summer feel…got that Nightranger twin guitar sound again & a bit of sax for outro..great!

 

9. Stella Ain’t No Dove – (9.5) Again great song title. Kiss riff and then morphs. Hooky chorus, great lyrics….yeah I just love this track

 

10. Montreal Midnight Supply – (9.5) The guitar in the verse sounds like a lighter Detroit Rock City to me. But the chorus is a different style again!. Killer solo (again!). bass and rhythm great!

 

11. Green Hills of Glumslov – (8.5) Over the top ballad to round off the normal album…a fine song, but slightly cheesy….would be a shame to end in this way, so that's why you need the digi bonus track………….

 

12. American High (bonus track) – (10) Now this is how you end…a hollow riff and drum explode into the best damned verse of the year for me…………..check out these lyrics. Great great song

 

‘I hit the ground at a quarter to 2, I was carried off the plane

And someone said I’ve got fuel for you, I was back on track again

Waiting for the curtain to fall, the wagon threw me off but I got back on board

Im getting ready to burn like you’ve never seen before.

 

 

So there you have it. I’ve also copied and pasted the Band’s statement from their Facebook page as this sums up their attitude and reasons for the album far better than I could ever write –

 

"The Night Flight Orchestra" started like so many others as an innocent yet serious drunken idea when Björn Strid (Soilwork) and David Andersson (Mean Streak, session Soilwork) were on the road together somewhere in North America in 2007. Björn and David were bonding over what they considered "classic" or not, from rock n roll conspiracies to being arrested in a lobby with nothing but leather pant...s on. All those scenarios, fictional or real, needed a soundtrack. They also came to think that whether you're on a metal tour or not, a lot of classic rock songs say it all and can really lend you a helping hand and make you forget about everything, especially when in motion or travelling. The classic escape. The never-ending road trip. The transatlantic night flight. It may sound simple and naive but what it all comes down to is that we all need that soundtrack to feel extra special, whether you have been arrested in a lobby or not. It didn't take long before bass player Sharlee D' Angelo (Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars) joined forces as well as keyboard player Richard Larsson (Von Benzo) and drummer Jonas Källsbäck (Mean Streak). The goal was to reclaim the 70's/early 80's sense for classic melody, the forgotten recipe to a timeless song, preferably a song mentioning a city, street name or an exhilarating alcoholic beverage. Anything that will have you spitting out the word 'classic'. From "Tarot Woman" to "Badlands", from "Rhiannon" to "Running on Empty", from "Blind Man" to "Night Moves", from "Deuce" to "Separate Ways", from "Elected" to "Set me Free". The list goes on. It's all about reclaiming the "classic".

 

 

Overall : 95%

 

Essential

[Nightrain]

Wow this really came out of nowhere and suddenly top your list. Never heard of em before but will try to check for samples asap, sounds promising. Might be something Geoff hate, coz of that 70s vibe lol

[Jez]

Been playing around with this one for the last few days and it is a really really good disc.As Glen says, there's a myriad of styles going on in this one and it all gels together superbly well. I've ordered a physical copy of it, so should be with me in a few days hopefully, so gonna hold off with my top albums of the year until I have played it some more. Top 10 maybe too.

[Glen]

I freakin love it. Nothing else getting a look in at the moment. But as Nighttrain says....does come with a health warning.

 

You are either gonna love this or hate it.

[zacharyamelie]

Holy 70's Batman!!! I don't hate it nor love either, I do respect it. It has the kind of sound that reminds me of when music was found on vinyl.

 

You suprise me Glen, you love this, you love Threshold, yet you didn't care for the new Circus Maximus, which was basically The Magnificent set to a more prog soundtrack.

[Glen]

Holy 70's Batman!!! I don't hate it nor love either, I do respect it. It has the kind of sound that reminds me of when music was found on vinyl.

 

You suprise me Glen, you love this, you love Threshold, yet you didn't care for the new Circus Maximus, which was basically The Magnificent set to a more prog soundtrack.

 

The Circus Maximus was pretty good, but the songs just didn't do it for me. I never bought that album but I did give it a few goes on Spotify - probably around 75-80% but as I maintain it would end up a dust gatherer at that score as there is so much good stuff about st the moment!

 

& sorry but it is a mile off The Magnificent IMO

[Geoff]

Ah, so here's the thread. I'll give it a go because anything you rate that high I must know about, but I am very sceptical about this one for my personal tastes.

[Glen]

Ah, so here's the thread. I'll give it a go because anything you rate that high I must know about, but I am very sceptical about this one for my personal tastes.

 

Ha ha I fully expect you to hate it mate! But u never know.....

 

Just really hit a spot with me - kudos to them for keeping the flame alive!!

[Nightrain]

So I checked this out yesterday and I'm surprised that this was off my radar, it's a great album indeed, and there are lots of varieties goin' on, but probably to sum that up, think of late 70s hard rock with early 80s AOR stuffs mixed up. Based on couple of spins, though I still can't give those tracks a big 9, most of them are in the 7.5 - 8.5 and weird thing is that Glen's most fave track is probably my least fave. I just think that it's not a prog track and stretching it to 8 minutes kinda bored me and a bit too repetitive.

 

I like 'Siberian Queen', there's a TEN feel to it and the chorus is great; 'Glowing City Madness' is an awesome ballad, slightly reminds me of classic JOURNEY; 'West Ruth Ave' has some briliant chorus there; 'Miami' is kinda heavy and totally great too.

 

'Internal Affairs' has some acid-jazz touch, a litttle bit Jamiroquai here and there, but still rockin' pretty hard, nice one and love it! '1998' and 'Montreal Midnight Supply' kicks some ass too, and the rest 3 tracks probably are 7.5 kinda stuffs. The production is great too so I'm expecting to buy it asap, nice info Glen

 

80%

[KarpetRydOFunk]

'Internal Affairs' has some acid-jazz touch, a litttle bit Jamiroquai here and there, but still rockin' pretty hard, nice one and love it!

 

Okay, you have my attention. I will have to check this out.

[Geoff]

Just want to check in on this one for you, Glen. Just curious if this still holds the high score you gave it, and the ranking of best CD of 2012? I'm sure you still dig it plenty, but curious if it may just have been early impression hype for you that made you rate it so high?

 

I heard it and my thoughts on it are unimportant. You know I hate it and it's about the opposite of music I like, but that's fair enough. Just not my thing personally. Man it sounds like it was recorded in the mid 70's. Is it a new recording just made to sound like that? Crazy.

[Glen]

Just want to check in on this one for you, Glen. Just curious if this still holds the high score you gave it, and the ranking of best CD of 2012? I'm sure you still dig it plenty, but curious if it may just have been early impression hype for you that made you rate it so high?

 

I heard it and my thoughts on it are unimportant. You know I hate it and it's about the opposite of music I like, but that's fair enough. Just not my thing personally. Man it sounds like it was recorded in the mid 70's. Is it a new recording just made to sound like that? Crazy.

 

Yep that is exactly how it was supposed to sound, like a 70s vibe.

 

Yeah I pretty much love this album.......havent heard anything like this for years. Very well done, some great tracks and lyrics. Just a breath of fresh air.

 

Im really waiting for the likes of Jez, Nick C, Swazi etc to lay some thoughts down.................they are the ones who would appreciate this.