I’ve never understood, Dear Reader, the need to reinvent the wheel. The wheel does a perfectly good job.
So I’ve never understood, either, why people are so desperate for “cutting edge” in music. I mean, yeah, by all means, have wide tastes, but sometimes you just want to hear a good riff, a harmonica, and a bloke who can really sing.
That is basically Falcon Trials nailed inside the first 15 seconds because that’s what the “Fast Lane”, the opening track to “Coming Home” is.
Falcon Trails are a couple of Finnish chaps and Lee Small singing. Now, Small is the bass player in a small thing called The Sweet, but he’s also a superb AOR singer, here Tom Rask (who plays Drums) and Mika Grönholm (who plays everything else!) allow him to show a slightly different side to things.
This, you see, is more of a classic rock vibe. “Feel” is more funky and 70s sounding. Deep Purple-ish, but not retro or tired. Instead, even the slower, bluesier ones like “The Way We Want” bristle energy and creativity, and Grönholm’s solo here is a mighty thing.
“Soul Satisfaction” dials up the disco a bit – fans of Fabrizio Grossi for example might need to get here fast – and that’s true of “Devotion” too.
Even though this isn’t your conventional “three-piece” – given that Grönholm is playing both bass and guitar here, there’s a fine balance to it as there always seems to be with a trio.
Right in the middle of it comes “Caught”, A five-minute-long statement of intent. Yes, it’s still funky, but it grooves like Whitesnake, and whatever it does – like on the more AOR “Last Hearts On Fire” (which packs its harmonies high and could be sung by Steve Overland) – there’s just this little mark of quality that says “yeah we know what we’re doing here, lads.”
“Safe In My Arms” is a lovely blues ballad, filled with superb harmonies, and “Stars” doesn’t do much to change the vibe. The title track does, though. Proudly 1980s, it wants its money for nothing and the chicks for free would help, and when the acoustics come out for the instrumental “Sapphire Sky” it’s tempting to think of the credits rolling and everyone looking back on what they’ve just done.
And when they do, you can imagine them all thinking that “Coming Home” has turned out exactly as they’d dreamed it would.
Hard rock never went away, but it’s good to remember its home sweet home every now and again.
Rating 8/10
