Harem Scarem
Hope

We finally close the series of reviews in which I recounted the highs and lows of Harem Scarem, with their farewell album Hope dated July 2008.

Let's say it wasn't a farewell worthy of the name, but I can tell you that it's still the best after Higher. The sound is that of Overload, to be clear, only this time the songwriting is slightly better. Just a little, but in life, you have to be satisfied, a bit like salaries in Italy! (What a bad habit I'm picking up! I'm starting to ramble about hot topics like work brrrrrr so cold!).

It starts with "Watch Your Back", a song set on low chords, where Lesperance sets the pace. Even though it's a bit alternative in sound, the song proves strangely effective and set on guitar games. The album continues with the unusual "Time Bomb", which stands out for its good alternation between guitar, bass, and drums and a decent melodic opening in the chorus. Hess is slightly off from Higher: he seems to have adapted to lower tones but that's not a big flaw in my opinion because he's still a great singer. We arrive at "Hope", another very beautiful song that has its charm, although it always leans towards the alternative. Great finale and I must say that in the chorus, it has a superb melody which re-evaluates it quite a bit. The sour notes are for "Days Are Numbered" which poorly reprises the themes addressed in Higher and Human Nature: saccharine melodies that serve no purpose and don’t add depth to the song. Very dark and slightly better is "Dark Times" (never a more fitting title to describe the current world situation!), with a vague Voice Of Reason flavor and heavily used wah-wah effects by Lesperance. "Beyond Repair" begins in a melancholic way and continues the same: it's a bit boring as a song to be honest, and thus seems like a pure filler to me. "Never Too Late" on the other hand finally shows a more fitting melody (hallelujah, after 5 years was it so difficult?) and recovers a few points for the album. The semiballad "Shooting Star" with a Leppard-like flavor is good, where the combination of piano and guitar, which Hess and Lesperance like so much, is heard in a not entirely incisive way. The album closes with the decent "Calm Before The Storm" ruined by the fact that it is blatantly alternative and the beautiful "Nothing Without You" in which Lesperance gets busy on the acoustic and Hess sings in a slightly higher pitch, but very little. Well, let's be satisfied, shall we? There's also an acoustic bonus track of "Higher" that adds nothing so exciting to the album... except for a great disappointment that we won’t hear anything more from the four Canadians!

With Hope, the twenty-year career of Harem Scarem comes to an end. Hope is a good album in the end, not a fundamental album, and as a fan of the group, I would recommend first buying Mood Swings and the debut album first; then, if you really like them, get the others too because in my opinion, it’s worth it, as I think they were one of the best melodic hard rock bands of the 90s and, despite ups and downs, they were at the beginning of this disastrous millennium as well. For the rest, the only thing I can tell you is that there was never great interest around them, but in the end, it’s the others who miss out on the beauty of their songs.

Thank you so much from the heart to Harem Scarem and let's hope that one day (since it's the trend nowadays...) there will be a reunion, even though it seems quite tough to me!