HUSH – If You Smile (Recycled) [2018]

HUSH was formed in 1998 in Norway, and as of today, deliver some fine melodic hard rocking sounds to the world. More specifically, Hush, as of end of November 2018, have prepared a “recycled” version of their debut album “If You Smile”, initially released in 1998.
“If You Smile (Recycled)” features a couple of new tracks, but essentially the great news is that this great album is available again after many years deleted.

Mixing classic rocking riffs from the same school as Whitesnake or Foreigner plus the melodies of Tyketto, “If You Smile” is one of the best melodic hard rock albums coming out from Scandinavia during the second half of the Nineties.
Musically, these songs pack as well a healthy dose of classic AOR from the ’80s, of the ‘edgy kind’.

With its pumping bass lines, catchy melodic line and smooth vocals, opener ‘Talk to Me’ is a classic melodic rock tune in my book. Then follower ‘Babe’ is one of these lovely AOR songs you love at first listen, mixing 1987 Whitesnake with 1986 Journey.
This double opening songs worth the album alone.

But quality continues with the bouncy ‘Believe’, the bluesy ‘Piece of the Action’, and the superb piano ballad ‘Let It Rain’ showcasing Patrick Simonsen’s great tenor pipes.
‘Heaven Ain’t…’ is a pretty ‘Americanized’ melodic rocker with some Tyketto on it – in fact, many of the songs bring to mind Tyketto first album – while ‘Big Time’ rocks indeed, big time.

The new stuff in this reissue are the acoustically delivered songs ‘She Will Be the One (Acoustic)’ and ‘Hold On (Acoustic)’, nice melodious stuff with cool atmosphere.

HUSH’s “If You Smile” is a cult classic, achieving a ‘cult status’ for being hard to find even when originally released, a quite difficult era for this musical genre.
So kudos to Lions Pride Music to make it available again, right in time for the album’s 20th anniversary.
HIGHLY Recommended

01 – Talk to Me
02 – Babe
03 – Believe
04 – Piece of the Action
05 – Let It Rain
06 – This Side of Love
07 – Heaven Ain’t…
08 – Big Time
09 – Sometimes
10 – G & B
11 – She Will Be the One (Acoustic)
12 – Hold On (Acoustic)

Patrick Simonsen
Rod Ruttle
Keith Christiansen
Steve Titz

PRE ORDER:
www.amazon.de/If-You-Smile-Recycled-Hush/dp/B07KDLYWVD
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