ANDRÉE THEANDER – The Peculiar Present (2020)

Swedish guitar player – and recently also singer ANDRÉE THEANDER puts out a first solo effort titled “The Peculiar Present” after two albums with the excellent band THE THEANDER EXPRESSION where he was the mainman, too.
This time we get less keyboard pomp but authentic, well-crafted melodic rock with little slices of 80s power pop, singer/songwriter sounds or even classic rock. Just check out the easy-going “What’s It Like To Cover“ or the extremely catchy “Mr. Mastermind“. It’s quality, timeless music.

You might have heard the artist‘s name from THE THEANDER EXPRESSION, his Westcoast AOR orientated project / band who have two CDs under their belt already.
A few years ago, main man Andrée Theander had the idea to do some solo stuff, different to the sounds he used to do before. So ‘The Peculiar Present’ is pretty different.

Of course the classy melodies still are all over this record, however the songs are clearly singer / songwriter orientated and more than once I feel myself reminded on the ’90s solo stuff from JOEY TEMPEST’s “A Place To Call Home“, yet more electric than acoustic.
Great melodies, no matter if you take the easy listening opener “Dare To Try“, the funky tinged title cut or the AORish “What‘s It Like To Cover“, there is quality all over the place.

Give this record a couple of spins and you will be rewarded with this different record from Theander in the end. And guess what – while he’s debuting at the mic, the man is a very good vocalist too!

01 – Dare to Try
02 – The Peculiar Present
03 – Words I’ve Never Used
04 – What It’s Like to Cover
05 – Ready for Tomorrow
06 – Sweet Alder
07 – Mr. Mastermind
08 – The Competition
09 – Train of Dreams
10 – A Fool’s Idea of Glory

Andree Theander (vocals, guitars)
Mats Alsberg (bass)
Rusian Sirota (keyboards)
Nick Barnes, Mikael Wikman (drums)

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