A solid album from Perfect Plan but a touch behind the debut to my ears. As good as Hilli is, I came to the conclusion he oversang many of these tracks which became irritable after a while. I give it an 8.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Perfect Plan
ALBUM: Time For A Miracle
LABEL: Frontiers SRL
SERIAL: FRCD 1041
YEAR: 2020
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Sweden
LINEUP: Kent Hilli – lead and backing vocals * Rolf Nordstrom guitars, backing vocals * Mats Byström – bass, lapsteel, backing vocals * Leif Ehlin – keyboards, backing vocals * Fredrik Forsberg – drums, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Time For A Miracle * 02 Better Walk Alone* 03 Heart To Stone * 04 Fighting To Win * 05 Every Time We Cry * 06 What About Love * 07 Nobody’s Fool * 08 Living On The Run * 09 Just One Wish * 10 Don’t Blame It On Love Again * 11 Give A Little Lovin’ * 12 Don’t Leave Me Here Alone
RATING: 80/100
Background
Thr Swedish band Perfect Plan were all the rage back in 2018, pulling kudos and plaudits from many melodic rock homestays, including ourselves. I gave it a 9.5/10, quite well deserved. Now we’re onto album #2 some two years later. So what’s the verdict?
They stick to what they know best; Scandi melodic hard rock with traces of 80’s era Europe, Treat and a dose of Whitesnake. Singer Kent Hilli remains the focal point, his voice touches on many vocalists we’ve heard before. Think Joey Tempest, David Coverdale and Mike Matijevic. The guy is very talented indeed.
The Songs
However not all the material hit me between the eyes. The ones that did were those that stayed in upper tempo territory. These included ‘Heart To Stone’, ‘Every Time We Cry’ and ‘What About Love’. The opening title track ‘Time For A Miracle’ displayed traces of Treat‘s musical trademark, the closing ballad’ Don’t Leave Me Alone’ was one of the better ballads I’ve heard this year.
In Summary
A solid album from Perfect Plan but a touch behind the debut to my ears. As good as Hilli is, I came to the conclusion he oversang many of these tracks which became irritable after a while. I give it an 8.
Video
Time For A Miracle
Better Walk Alone
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
[Jeffrey343] I’m a big fan of the Perfect Plan album. While a lot of people are saying that it’s heavier than the debut, I feel opposite. I think they found their own sound a little more on this one, while still sounding representative of many of our favorites. It is better lyrically as well, although still not perfect. I recently read an article about “Winds Of Change” by the Scorpions, and this paragraph sums up nicely what I sometimes feel about the songs on the two Perfect Plan albums:
“In the podcast, Keefe argues, correctly, that “Wind of Change” may have been the most important rock song ever released, but the song doesn’t get a lot of play in the U.S. anymore. Perhaps that’s because the lyrics are a jumble of clichés put together oddly. And here is overwhelming evidence that this song was written by a West German with very strong English language skills, who was familiar with idioms and clichés, but didn’t have the native speaker’s sense for their typical meaning.”
Kent Hilli is the main songwriter, and he does seem to be able to converse fluently in English. Seems like a really cool guy too, right at my age (close to mid-50s). I’d gladly offer to help him smooth out a few odd lyrical issues. But the songs are so good that this is just a minor thing to me. As it stands now, this should be my top album of 2020 unless something unforeseen comes along the next two months.