Review NESTOR ‘Kids in a Ghost Town’

Nestor is a band I haven’t had on my radar until my brother gave me the tip of listening to these five guys from Sweden. Knowing his good taste, the recommendation was taken seriously and what got out of the speakers impressed right away.

The quintet, hailing from Falköping, Sweden, released with ‘Kids in a Ghost Town’ an album that has all the right ingredients in place to become a very successful record. Critically acclaimed, the ten songs on this longplayer are catchy rock anthems, a treat for ears and mind. The fact that the video for the opener and first single ‘On the Run’ could score more than 200,000 clicks on YouTube impresses and if you listen to the song, then you understand instantly why this is the case. The song has this anthemic extra that comes with the melody in verse and chorus. It’s one of these songs you can’t get out of your mind, and you just want to press the ‘repeat’-button again and again. I would almost go that far saying that the song, although being different, has a similar potential as Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’.

Nestor surf the wave of melodic rock and AOR with self-esteem and savvy. Regardless of if you drop the needle at the mentioned opener or the very moving ‘Tomorrow’, it is always good music you get in return. The latter has for kids of the ‘80s a special treat too. Not only known for her voice, no less that Samantha Fox shares vocals with frontman Tobias Gustavsson, and what should I say … the voices go together very well. And if you need another thematic link back to the ‘80s, listen to the vivid ‘Perfect 10 (Eyes Like Demi Moore)’. The tune isn’t heavy and some not even consider the track to be hard. In the end it’s the groove and pounding beat that drags you into this song.

The golden days of melodic rock are also the period that acted as an imprint for the skilled quintet. There are the mentioned soulful elements on ‘Kids in a Ghost Town’ and they are great. However, the real good moments are when the band unleash the rock beast. Songs like the powering ‘Firesign’ and the big title track are, together with the opener, the real highlights on this release.

Inspired by a time when bands like Europe and Bon Jovi had their biggest career jump, Nestor takes the sound of this time and manage extremely well to put it into a context of today. This is a very tough endeavor since one easily can fall into the trap of copying. Not in this case. ‘Kids in a Ghost Town’ is an album of 2021 and it refers to a time three decades ago. I’m curious to see where this musical road will take the guys in the future. This album though has all ingredients in place to provide Nestor a solid platform for some exciting next steps.