Okay, so we know AOR/melodic rock—whatever you want to call it—never goes out of fashion. But what’s slightly surprising is that Sisters Doll are Australian.
You have a vision of Aussie rock and roll, don’t you? Angus in his uniform, Joel O’Keefe belting lager cans on his head. Nice boys don’t play rock and roll after all.
Yet this Melbourne quartet—all brothers, real ones, not like The Ramones—are pretty much exactly the type of band they seem to manufacture in Europe to release records on the Frontiers label.
Essentially, if you like your rock and roll classy, superbly done, and polished as anything in the 80s, then Sisters Doll are your boys.
Bruce Kulick guested on one of their early albums, and you can see why when the chorus to “Climbing Out of Hell” hits. The harmonies are stacked high, and the solos screech.
And if “Prisoner” has a tougher edge, then it’s only because Sisters Doll fancy some light and shade, but here’s the thing: you can’t listen to “Change” and not think you’re listening to something special. Quite frankly, you wish Bon Jovi had written something this good in the last 20 years.
Of course, there are ballads. There should be ballads on a record like this: “First Time” is a kind of “Every Rose” moment for those who still listen to their favourite songs playing on the radio, as it were.
“Don’t Give Up On Us” is the Trixter moment (if you know, you know), “Baby Doll” injects just a little bit of sleaze into things, just because, and given the nature of the (literal) brotherhood on show, the fists-in-the-air “United” probably means so much.
There’s a bit of a foray into something bluesy on “Take You Away,” and “Kiss Me,” with its handclaps, is almost begging to be played live—and when it is, it’ll sound brilliant.
“You Can’t Bring Me Down” sees the handbrake off, the pedal to the floor, and away we go. Danger Danger in 1990 went gold with less.
The title track brings this to a conclusion, and in doing so, it finds a stripped-down acoustic vibe, at odds at first with the bombast of the rest, yet at the same time totally in keeping, and it even explodes before the end anyway.
Look, I grew up with this type of music. Probably before any of the Miletos were born, I was listening to Warrant, Poison, Firehouse, and thousands long forgotten.
“Scars” is from that lineage but is one of the best of its type in recent times. It proves that arena rock is merely a state of mind.
Rating 9/10
