Violet are the new German female fronted AOR band from Stuttgart who formed in 2020 with their debut album ‘Illusions’ during Nov 2022.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Violet
ALBUM: Illusions
LABEL: Yellow Muffin/Metalapolis
SERIAL: 536202
YEAR: 2022
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
LINEUP: Jamie Beckham – vocals * Manuel Heller – guitars * Filip Kuzanski – keyboards * Eric Hart – bass * Maurice Probst – drums * Frank Dapper – session drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 The Looks Of A Winner * 02 Blame It On The Night * 03 Sophie * 04 Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me) * 05 Francine * 06 Burning May * 07 Only Love * 08 Cover Model * 09 Run Away
RATING: 
WEBLINKS: FB Page
Background
Violet are the name of a new German female fronted AOR band from Stuttgart who formed in 2020 and have landed their debut album ‘Illusions’ during November 2022. Their bio suggests comparisons with Heart, Starship, Toto, and they’d be dead on the money, remembering that we’re now thirty years on and with a modern German sound.
The Songs
As I’m listening to this band, I’m reminded of the British outfit Java who released a posthumous album for Escape Music in 2017. There are some good structural ideas going on with Violet, which means they are not quite cookie-cutter, all fine by me. The killer keyboard arrangements are a feature of Violet, that will please all the ivory bashers among you.
Bombastic keys kick it off on ‘The Looks Of A Winner’. Listening to this and the other highlight ‘Sophie’ (see videos below) got my attention rather quickly. ‘Blame It On The Night’ also gets the adrenalin racing through the system, that chorus is pretty catchy too. Violet cover the Samantha Fox track ‘Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me)’. I don’t recall the original from the lovely Samantha, in fact I don’t recall anything that she ever recorded, I was so oblivious of her, apart from those err hmm.. obvious assets.
The sugar bullets keep dropping, ‘Francine’ is the delicious moment to slide into my aural senses, the sax solo is a keeper. This track is tailor-made for late night listening. ‘Burning May’ is full to the brim of multiple harmony vocals, plus there is a shared male/female vocal going on. Diabetics beware! Lol. ‘Only Love’ is the album’s poppiest moment, the straightforward arrangement embellished by some tinkerbell keyboard parts along with Jamie’s Marie Fredriksson‘s vocal styling. ‘Cover Model’ splashes more melodic paint onto the canvas while ‘Run Away’ caps off what is a surprisingly (no, make that shockingly) super little album.
In Summary
Violet have clearly demonstrated that if you are prepared to write excellent songs and put some effort into it, you can attract a big audience, and I believe these Germans have done exactly that. And yes, it’s good to know that new contenders such as Violet are still emerging, giving hope that the genre is far from being killed off. I’ve been encouraged by a handful of FF melodic rock/metal bands of late including Chez Kane, Tao, Forget-Me-Not and harder edged bands like Metalite and Edge Of Paradise. We are in the good hands of the ladies it would appear. Totally endorsed.
Video
The Looks Of A Winner
Sophie
Do Ya Do Ya (Sam Fox cover)
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[Explorer] The Chez Kane album you mentioned is great fun.. a real throwback. I’m making a rare foray out into gigging land this Sunday to see her play locally.
Another band that springs to mind after listening to this again are 80’s German hi-tech outfit [Balanx], particularly from a keyboard perspective.