Melodic.net review of Long Before I Knew You
Review: Long Before I Knew You
by Ola Gränshagen 2022-04-08
Being quite well-known through his longtime work in Michael McDonald’s band, Bernie Chiaravalle needs not much of an introduction. Like many artists he’s had plenty of time during the pandemic to not only write new music, but also explore the past. Bernie dug through old recordings and re-recorded about 25 of them, from which he then chose 17 for this very nice album. Mind you, this was done in spite of him recording two new studio albums during the pandemic as well! These will be released later on.
Bernie is actually playing all instruments himself on these re-recordings which is impressive in itself. The songs were written in the 70’s to the early 90’s. One of my absolute fave songs here is ”Swear Your Love” with a lovely Toto beat and a touch of early 1980’s! Funny, even the title has Toto connections considering the Steve Lukather tune by the same title from his Lukather album.
So how does this sound? Ah, a lovely Electric Light Orchestra touch in the chorus of ”Dear To Me” for example. The catchy ”Leave It To You” is one of many other goodies too, with a slight power pop vein to meet the soft AOR and westcoast.
I find lots of songs that I really like, and Bernie has managed to create a production that sounds like the good old days – and this is positively meant! Furthermore, in spite of doing everything himself, it sounds like a band. Well done, to say the least!
”Lover’s Dream” is another one of a large bunch of good tunes. Some Michael Ruff but in a pop overcoat of Wax or Paul Bliss.
With the songs being collected all the way from the 70’s onwards, there are a few that step a bit outside of the expected westcoast genre. Like ”Dear To Me” which has vibes of The Beatles, for example. There’s one or two more with the same kind of influences, still Chiaravalle adds his own touch which takes it a little more into the 80’s sound.
The perfect ending song is ”Your Love Shines”, a soft wonderful song. But it is actually not the last song of the album! Instead it is all finished by ”Hell Of A Fight”, a rocker that is also a good that is proof of the fine variation in styles here.
If you’re looking for good musicianship & singing, catchy melodies and 70’s/80’s sounding lightweight AOR songs. This is a must.
An album like this also raises more questions: what about all the other musicians and record labels who are sitting on shelved recordings? There must be hundreds and hundreds of non-released good AOR, westcoast and melodic hard rock songs and albums out there. We had the super nice release of US act Avalon last year, thanks to band member Rick Neigher doing the same musical paleonthological work. Still, the world is worth hearing all the other stuff that is lying around on shelves in every corner of the world. Come on!
