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Last Autumn's Dream: In Disguise
Last Autumn's Dream In Disguise CD Album Review

Last Autumn's Dream: In Disguise

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR
4.5/5.0

Website (Label)
Escape Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 11.01.2017

To my surprise, a Last Autumn's Dream album has not crossed my desk in five years, the last being 2012's Nine Lives. But the band has continued its prolific ways nonetheless, releasing four more studio albums. Now the return with their fourteenth studio album, In Disguise, a "covers" album featuring songs that influenced the band members in their early, younger, years.

Last Autumn's Dream Band Photo

Last Autumn's Dream

Sometimes "covers" albums can be problematic. Sometimes the band offers songs you simply don't recognize. It's not because they play the song so poorly, destroy the arrangement, or obliterate the melody. No, you never heard (of) the song before. For instance, LAD covers Headpins' Just One More Time and City Boy's Heads Are Rolling. Of these choices, for the former I never heard of the band or the song, for the latter, I know of the band, but never heard any of their songs. What this should do then, if you like what you hear from LAD, is prompt you to investigate further.

Then there's the songs that you do know, and then, sometimes, your first reaction is, "Geez, they better not screw that up." But we're talking Last Autumn's Dream here. They eat, sleep, and bleed classic AOR melodic rock. You know they want screw with the essential melody, arrangement, hook, or catchy twist in the song. The band coves so well-known tunes with Streets' If Love Should Go, The Sweet's Wig Wam Bam, Bachman Turner Overdrive's Hey You and, being from Sweden, ABBA's When I Kissed The Teacher. They sound terrific, reenergized and enthusiastic. But, for me, better kudos go to two songs. One is Loverboy's Working For The Weekend, where they nail everything from cowbell to the groove and guitar line. Also, there's Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner. If never been a huge fan of Steve Miller or most anything he has done (if I hear The Joker any time soon, I'll puke), but I like this song. And you know what? I like LAD's version much better. I think it's Mikael Erlandsson's voice.

A few final remarks. First, of some curiosity, more than half of the songs are from the Seventies, with nothing latter than 1983. I guess their age is just showing. Also, on the Escape Music website you can find a track-by-track description by LAD band members of why the song(s) were important to them. I include the track-by-track listing here in PDF format. It definitely more interesting reading than this review.

To summarize, with In Disguise, Last Autumn's Dream covers some of their favorite and most influential songs and, in true LAD style, they sound terrific. Easily recommended.

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The Bottom Line

With In Disguise, Last Autumn's Dream covers some of their favorite and most influential songs and, in true LAD style, they sound terrific. Easily recommended.

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