Album Review by EDF
The first notes from this album’s opening track MYSTIC DIVINE reminds me of Fleetwood Mac from around the Rumours period. What Hazel Lord seem to have done is go back to the seventies where lyrics and melody once ruled the music world. This New York based group has a pleasant feel to them and while some people might call their music safe, there are not many groups that produce this sort of music anymore.
At times Petina Cole’s vocal mixed with Susan Mitchell’s violin playing give the group a country sound that catches you off guard. A TRUE LIFE CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND lyrically might or might be a sort of homage to Billy Joel’s NEW YORK STATE OF MIND and is easily one of the highlights here. Elsewhere there are ranges of influences to be found here which could be attributed to various MOR acts. On the other side of the spectrum we have the bizarre, here represented by the last two tracks on the album. DADA DATA features a choir and church organ that sound fantastic and eventually breaks down at the end where it sounds like everyone involved had too much wine to drink. WOUNDED ORBIT starts off pleasant enough but then guitarist Anthony Biale injects some weird kind of rap aided by country music style fiddle playing which makes this eight-minute plus song a bit tiresome.
Otherwise, Hazel Lord shows a lot of promise and will reap the rewards once they find their true voice.
