DRIVE, SHE SAID-Pedal To The Metal

Frontiers Music srl

One of my old favourite bands has reunited again. After being the main man in American Tears and Touch keyboard player/composer Mark Mangold started Drive, She Said with guitarist/singer Al Fritsch. The epic debut album (1989) on CBS Records did not do much due to shitty promotion and lots of politics within the record company. The band signed with English label Music For Nations and things went a lot better. The albums ‘Drivin’ Wheel’ (seen as the heaviest album of the group) and ‘Excelerator’ are still great CD’s. After a compilation CD and the album ‘Real Life’ the group called it quits. But now Fritsch and Mangold once again joined forces and it is like time has been standing still. Everything about Drive, She Said has always been BIG. A big sound, big vocals, big keys, big guitars, big drums and above all big choirs. Yes, sure, it is a bit predictable perhaps, but the songs are that catchy that you will find yourself humming along very quickly and imagining that you are part of the proceedings when you sing-a-long with this record while taking a shower with this CD blasting on the background. That is how catchy this band is and always has been. Nothing has changed at all. Mangold and Fritsch received a lot of help from befriended musicians. Tommy Denander plays guitar and people like Goran Edman, Peppy Castro, Randy Jackson, Thomas Vikstrom and Ted Poley have added their vocal talents to the Drive, She Said choir. Even the lovely Fiona is back at the helm. On the first DSS CD she sang a duet with Al and she does that now as well. ,,In Your Arms’’ is a pure AOR ballad, a bit soppy perhaps, but that is DSS. The band has always had a polished but overwhelming sound. Melodic rock at its best is what ‘Pedal To The Metal’ has to offer. Old fashioned for sure, but so damn catchy and well executed that it does not matter that the album has that old eighties/early nineties style. Oh yeah, listen to ,,Lost In You’’ and you will hear a small part of ,,Don’t You Know What Love Is”, the biggest hit of Touch. Hopefully the release of this CD means that the band will stick around for the time being.