Dare - Out Of The Silence - 1988 gdmonline.info

Dare were formed as an outtake by Darren Wharton after the demise/retirement of Thin Lizzy. A wonderful moment in UK AOR and a band that could have gone places had they stuck to the same gameplan and not got carried away by the hype.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Dare
ALBUM: Out Of The Silence
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: AMA 5221, 395221-2
YEAR: 1988
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England

LINEUP: Darren Wharton – vocals, keyboards * Vinny Burns – guitars * Brian Cox – keyboards * Shelley – bass * James Ross – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Abandon * 02 Into The Fire * 03 Nothing Is Stronger Than Love * 04 Runaway * 05 Under The Sun * 06 The Raindance * 07 King Of Spades * 08 Heartbreaker * 09 Return The Heart * 10 Don’t Let Go

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Table of Contents

Background

Dare were formed as an outtake by Darren Wharton after the demise/retirement of Thin Lizzy. A wonderful moment in UK AOR and a band that could have gone places had they stuck to the same gameplan and not got carried away by the hype. In any case, Dare have returned to the AOR fold of late, and it was with this debut album that the ball got rolling for them.

The Songs

‘Out Of The Silence’ has been given the whole nine yards in the production stakes, with Mike Shipley and Larry Klein giving this album a glossy sheen befit a king. There is a certain celtic influence on some of the songs, but mostly it’s bombastic keyboards all the way!

‘Abandon’, and the awesome ‘Into The Fire’ lead the assault. Air keyboards anyone? It doesn’t let up either with the passionate ‘Nothing Is Stronger Than Love’, the note perfect ‘Runaway’, and the emotive cascade of ‘Under The Sun’.

What am I talking about? The whole album is great. Play it over and over again! I can’t finish up without mentioning the album closer ‘Don’t Let Go’ as heartfelt an AOR song as you can get. Does it get better than this?

In Summary

Most of the way Darren’s vocals are sort of subdued, and in some parts are more of a husky whisper. It all adds to the charm of the overall package.

Meanwhile, Vinny Burns guitar talents while also subdued, shows enough evidence to demonstrate his meteoric rise to fame in melodic rock circles during the 90’s courtesy of Ten, Hugo, and Bob Catley.

As most AOR punters would know, the second album ‘Blood From Stone’ took a completely different direction, more of an all out hard rock/metal album, before a seven year hiatus produced the ‘Calm Before The Storm’ album, a return to their AOR roots, followed by the equally compelling ‘Belief’ (2001). Hoorah!