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Rating: I want to give you a gem. The experts surely won't discover anything new, but for the less experienced, it's only right that they broaden their horizons and dive into less celebrated and more hidden albums. Then again, "dive into" is just a manner of speaking. The album I'm proposing to you can certainly be described as a rarity. Naturally, I have it. And to think it was a gift from someone who humorously tries to reclaim it every time they sneak into my musical possessions. But there I reason like a southern landowner and block the way. Both because the album has a decent economic value and because it contains music with guts and a woman's voice. And then, as someone might say, "I've killed for much less."
The Perfect Crime made their first and only album in 1990, adding to my personal reserve of that delightful year. Just like wine bottle collectors, who at some point enjoy fishing for unimaginable vintages from improbable countries, so it happens with record collectors (even though, to be honest, I'm not one, even if I have a few interesting pieces) who search for something different and outside the classic circuits. Well, the Perfect Crime were a new proposal from a peripheral market compared to the busier circuits: the Scandinavian one. More precisely, Norwegian. In terms of crude marketing, the few copies of "Blonde On Blonde" (by the way, the name of the progenitor band of the Perfect Crime, who released a full-length just the year before) are justified by the limited receptiveness of the Northern European market. Who knows, maybe they weren't convinced they could succeed elsewhere, maybe they just wanted to please the fans of Norway and neighboring areas, today's fatherlands of black metal, always traversed by alternative phenomena of the highest level (one at random: Motorpsycho).
However, thirty years after its release, this "Blonde On Blonde" still proves to be an enjoyable musical composition, made with full respect for the hr/aor rules and disciplined by an ex-member of the great Whitesnake: Bernie Mardsen (also on guitars and compositions). Alongside him is a respectable British staff.
The band. Four Norwegian youth equipped with standard technical skills on the instruments. A woman, Bente Smaavik (you can find her on Facebook), singing with a protractor. A professional-grade singer, with great skill in managing her voice, with a preference for lower tones. But the high ones are tough and precise, as you would expect from a good northern European female. Some compare her to Lee Aaron, but don't believe it too much. The difference in interpretation with the Canadian is considerable and in favor of the North American. Try listening to them with headphones: Lee is fire, Bente is ice.
The sound. I've already talked about hard rock and aor. Consider them in a very broad, heterogeneous, and open sense. In 10 tracks, the main aspects of the two genres are explored in a sufficiently abundant manner. Without a doubt, references for the ear can be Laos on the aor side. On the other side, there's a band that focuses everything on its star, Bente, putting her in a position to give her best just as Lee Aaron's musicians did in Bodyrock, for instance, in the tracks with the highest rate of pathos. The hard rock offered by the Norwegians is thus of a clearly female style.
The album. The Perfect Crime don't immediately show their face, but start with effect keyboards onto which guitar swirls are grafted and then proceed with the secure and solemn progression of "Into The Water", a track that I personally really like because it allows the mist to lift slowly to reveal a sharp and confident Bente, and a perfectly fitting chorus accompanied by an interesting riff, precise and well thought-out. A hard, airy track, clearly influenced by American productions. The band reveals itself gradually in the album very "laosian" in "One Of These Days", aor that can also seem cloying to those not in love with the genre and that revolves around swirling keyboards that exude style with every touch, very classic hard rock in the convincing "Perfect Crime", even more solemn than the opener and where Bente reigns, very epic in "Liar", where there's a step forward in technique with Mardsen on guitar followed by impressive keyboards, very boulevard in "Key In The Door" which I personally appreciate with conviction.
At the end of the album, of which I believe I've cited the best parts, there's "Stripped To The Bone", which aims to be Perfect Crime's tribute to the masters of 70s and 80s hard rock. The sum of the album's values produces undoubtedly positive and promising results, but these are discussions left without any follow-up. "Blonde On Blonde" is an album that deserved a successor to understand where the band would have positioned itself in more mature times. A 4 out of trust and based on quality. Who knows why, though, I'm convinced that afterward they wouldn't have been as good. Try them.
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