MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK – Michael Learns To Rock [Remastered +4]

Some kind of a guilty pleasure for many melodic hard rockers, Danish band MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK always delivered catchy tunes enjoyed by diverse audiences all over the world. Now their essential discography has been remastered and reissued with a bunch of bonus tracks.
The self-titled debut “Michael Learns To Rock” or MLTR is my favorite, also by most Euro AOR fans out there.

Call it what you like; Euro Eock&Pop, Hi-Tech AOR, light Melodic Rock… “Michael Learns To Rock” is all of these rolled into one. I can see why these guys managed to get this debut all the way to the States. There are some fantastic moments on here, and a real mixture too.

The production and delivery is top notch (as with most Danish albums I’d say), while the vocal harmonies are great.
Just listen to the opening brace of songs on offer: ‘My Blue Angel’ is killer hi-tech AOR, ‘Looking At Love’ is a lilting West Coast flavoured song, while ‘A Kiss In The Rain’ is more hi-tech magic (listen to that chorus), not too far removed from the best that Robert Tepper, Tim Feehan or Brian Spence can throw up.

Most of the other songs are all quite memorable, you can hum along quite nicely to ‘Messages’, the smooth ‘I Still Carry On’, even the rather tacky ‘African Queen’. The ballads on the album ‘The Actor’ (a huge hit in Asia) and ‘Crazy Dream’ also meander along in melodic fashion.

This remastered reissue also features as bonus the hard to find ‘Remix ’99’ of ‘The Actor’, and the previously unreleased (and beautiful) ‘Piano Version’ of the song.
Also we have ‘I’ll Kill For You’ an outtake from the album sessions, never included into the final tracklist. Another unheard quality song.

If you’ve never heard them before, this remastered reissue of “Michael Learns To Rock” is the best point to start. Extremely polished melodies, smooth vocals, clean guitar solos and catchy choruses is what you’ll find here, all done with the typical Scandinavian class.
A guilty pleasure? Not guilty at all, but a first class melodic poppy bliss!
Highly Recommended

You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox

01 – My Blue Angel
02 – Looking At Love
03 – A Kiss In The Rain
04 – The Actor
05 – Messages
06 – I Still Carry On
07 – Crazy Dream
08 – African Queen
09 – Come On And Dance
10 – Let’s Build A Room
11 – Gone After Midnight
BONUS TRACKS:
12 – The Actor (Remix ’99)
13 – The Actor (Early Piano Version)
14 – I’ll Kill For You (Outtake 1990)
15 – The Actor (Danish Version 1990)

Jascha Richter – lead vocals, keyboards, guitars
Mikkel Lentz – guitars, keyboards
Kåre Wanscher – drums, percussion
Søren Madsen – bass, rhythm guitar, backing vocals, percussion

BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Learns-Rock-Remastered/dp/B017OHOLAG
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