Harem Scarem - 'Change The World' Out now on Frontiers Music srl

Consistently good Canadian rockers Harem Scarem hit a late career high point with 2017’s ‘United’ album and they continue a rich run of form on this, their 15th album.

As you would expect, it’s full of finely crafted tunes penned by singer Harry Hess and Pete Lesperance with plenty of melody and hooks. Things also take a bit of a more serious mood swing lyrically with a few modern themes that are relevant to contemporary issues such as ‘In the Unknown’ with it’s ‘Grace Under Fire’ refrain. The anthemic title track is another example of this with TNT’s Tony Harnell joining in prominently on backing vocals and featuring some sprightly guitar work from Lesperance.

Lead single ‘The Death of Me’ is a strong track; too heavy to be pure AOR but with a strong melodic chorus. Many of the other songs fairly pump along on an energetic beat like ‘Searching for Meaning’, ‘Riot In My Head’ and ‘Aftershock’. ‘No Man’s Land’ features a funky bass motif and they slow it down to great effect on the quality ‘Mother of Invention’. They’ll probably never write a ballad as good as their classic weepie ‘Honestly’ but ‘No Me Without You’ is a valiant effort and you can imagine this featuring as a wedding song for any couples that get together on Planet Rock Dating or similar.

Overall, it’s very good – probably not quite matching the absolute pinnacle of ‘United’ but then few albums do - and well worth a quarantine listen. Enjoy.