Review SKAGARACK ‘Heart & Soul’

Danish Skagarack are a band that release a few albums during the 80s and after having launched ‘Big Time’ in 1993 the band parted ways. Also in this case some live shows during 2020 acted as a motivator for the melodic rock band to consider a return to the scene.

Having found the old groove again and driven by Torben Schmidt, Skagarack started to write new songs, music that will be launched these days on a longplayer entitled ‘Heart & Soul’.

One thing right away, the new album can’t compete with the first two records of the band which doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth to listen to what the band has in the offer. The self-titled debut and the following album ‘Hungry for a Game’ belong to the best European AOR brought to surface. Now it is ‘Heart & Soul’ that shows the strength of a band that re-discovered their passion for melodic rock music.

Twelve songs are part of this return and what fans get offered is well-crafted rock music that covers powerful half-ballads such as ‘Be With You Forever’ and rocking tunes like ‘Peace of Mind (To Have a Good Time)’. Also ‘A Cool Damn Car’ shows a great blend of melody and rocking moments while the title track is a smoothly grooving tune, an ear-pleaser par excellence.

‘Cool to be Old School’ comes with a 70s vibe while ‘Ain’t Got Nothing to Lose’ is one of the rockers on the album, a tune with a bluesy vibe and the same goes for ‘So Right’ before ‘Anymore’ closes the books on ‘Heart & Soul’ in a gently swinging fashion.

‘Heart & Soul’ manifests a thrilling return of a band that is closely connected to European AOR. The Danes are surely back in business and although everybody got older over time the music still sounds young at heart (& soul).