Customer Reviews

Lint

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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Originally released in 1997, Lint was debut album from Swedish melodic rockers House of Shakira. The band takes a somewhat quirky approach (They named their album Lint and have songs like "Elephant Gun") to the traditional AOR sound, but it's pretty effective and very catchy. There's an obvious Journey and Styx influence to House of Shakira's sound, especially in the vocal area. The lead vocals are clean and powerful, and the album relies heavily on background vocal harmonies. When it works, the result is some great songs. Sometimes the songs are just a bit too weird to work though.

They're not quite on the same level as Treat or Europe, but House of Shakira is still a pretty enjoyable melodic rock band, and they consistently release high quality albums. Lint is a very solid album, but if you're new to the band I'd recommend starting with a compilation like Best of 2 or beginning with one of their newer releases and working backwards.

Edition Notes: Lion Music reissued Lint in 2005, adding a pair of bonus tracks - "On the F Green" and "Heroes." I'm not sure if the album has been remastered, but it sounds like that's possible.

House of Shakira is one of the finest current melodic rock bands from Sweden generating A-1 class AOR bands these days.

Comparing with styx-like Grand Illusion also high-acclaimed Swedish AOR band, this has shown more diverse music influence. Journey-like "Who Is Lying Now" is typical of 80's melodic pop hard rock track. In "Elephant Gun" Africana chorus pop up out of sudden. My #1 pick from this album is Method of Madness with joyous High High High High chorus and Morning Over Morocco starting from mass prayer in Muslim mosque. Highly recommended if you love III, their third album. Recommended if you like Styx, Survivor, Journey and Grand Illusion.

Pretty lightweight melodic rock in the vein of Styx/Survivor. I found this in a bargain-bin, it sounded promising but I've heard this type of music countless times by other bands. The band is good, the vocals are fine, the digital recording is very clean, but it didn't grab me. Full lyrics/credits, 11 tracks/47.01.