I vividly remember when I discovered AOR torchbearers Station. It was the summer of 2018, when things were looking up for rock n’ roll, at least in terms of sales, airplay, and mainstream recognition. The overnight success of Greta Van Zeppelin, I mean, Fleet, and the reinvention of Ghost from occult metal niche to arena rock juggernaut broke down the floodgates for many other bands to reach similar heights. Bands like Rival Sons and The Struts (Neither of which I’m a fan of, but hey, go team!), who for all purposes were on the cusp of such success prior to the COVID pandemic.
Anyways, Station caught my attention with a targeted Facebook ad that read something along the lines of: “The future of rock n’ roll?!” Below was the video for their 2015 song, “One and Only”. And folks, for the climate of that summer, I was seriously under the impression Station would be the next band of this crop to explode. Ghost was slowly incorporating elements of 80s AOR into their sound, even if their fanbase of 16 year old Hot Topic goths didn’t know it. Who’s to say a full fledged AOR band couldn’t do the same? Unfortunately, this didn’t end up happening…yet. From the sound of their latest album, Perspective, Station certainly has the talent to catch the general public’s attention.
Most of today’s AOR bands fall into the Eclipse vein: old school melodies with a new school production. That’s all fine and good if you can pull it off efficiently. Station on the other hand prefers to do everything old school, melodies, production, and all. What also sets them apart from the modern AOR pack is their emphasis on guitar leads and melodies as opposed to riffs. In other words, they’re not hard rocking enough to be hard rock, which makes them all the more perfect to sneak into the rotations of not just active rock radio, adult contemporary radio in between Ed Sheeran and that godawful Santana song (you know the one).
The album opens with “I Can’t Find My Way”, which is about as straightforward of an AOR song as one could ask for and sets the tone for the rest of the album. As I mentioned before, production and melody proves to be key, especially on this song, the neon lit nirvana of “See the Light”, and the atmospheric “Tonight”: A ballad that boasts the lush mystique of 80s Foreigner. Nearly half of this album falls into the ballads category, but at no point is this a letdown. Station manages to maintain the “power” part of power ballads, from the Journey inspired “Do You Really Want to Fall in Love Again” to the hook laden “If You Want Love”. Rounding it all out is a brilliant pair of yacht rockers in the breezy “Spanish Steps” and the musically adventurous “You Found Yesterday”, both songs channeling different facets of west coast gods Toto.
Station is a band who should and could be huge. The only traditional rock or metal band today doing more interesting things with melody is perhaps High Spirits. These dudes give AOR a good name. As far as their name goes, it’s one you’ll be hearing about for a long time!
9 out of 10
Label: Station Music
Genre: AOR
For fans of: Journey, Foreigner, Toto