Honeymoon Suite brings us more of their catchy music with great vocals from Johnnie Dee to the rest of the band backing him up. The opening song, which is also the title song--Alive, really shows that the band has not missed a beat. I have been a fan of the band since their debut in the early 80s.
HONEYMOON SUITE are: Johnnie Dee - lead vocals
Derry Greham - guitars/keyboards/backing vocals Dave Betts - drums
Gary Lalonde - bass Peter Nunn - keyboards
Song #2 is another great single from the album "Find What You're Looking For" -I'm always a sucker for a song that starts off with the drums and is solid throughout.
For those of you out there who might not heard of the band or had the pleasure of hearing some of their hits since the late 80s, they hit the charts & Much Music, here in Canada, & MTV in the USA with several videos from their debut album that had the big hit "New Girl Now"-the album would sell 300, 000 copies in Canada alone.
"During the 1990’s, the band went through several lineup changes, but in the early 2000’s, the original lineup of Johnnie, Derry, Gary, and Dave was re-formed, along with the addition of keyboard player Peter Nunn, and is still intact to this day."
But here we are in 2024 the band still sounds great with music that I think will make any fan of the band happy, I know I have been enjoying hearing them again.
Songs like "Done Doin Me" really bring on a heavier sound for the band--heavy drums, keys, and booming bass.
"Not Afraid To Fall" sounds like a ballad right out of the 80s, refreshed with today's music production, and certainly has the old-school vibe throughout.
"Tell Me What You Want" was the first song that was released from the album back in 2019.
My favorite track of the album is "Livin' Out Loud"-right from the squeal on the guitar and the riff is so catchy, background harmonies, the chorus, the entire song just pounds it home!
The guitar is solid throughout. The band still has it!
Because the album is great, it really goes by fairly fast. The running time of the album is only 37:54- so during this review, I have heard each song several times, some more than others obviously, but no complaints here!
Some facts from the press notes:
"In 1983, the band entered a demo of “New Girl Now” to a homegrown contest put on by Toronto rock station Q107.
They won that year and this led to a multi-album deal with WEA Canada after being signed by Bob Roper.
The band recorded their debut self-titled album which was released in July, 1984. The album was an instant success, and with the help of massive airplay, several videos on MTV and MuchMusic, it went on to sell over 300,000 units in Canada alone.
Since their debut release, HONEYMOON SUITE has released a total of seven studio albums with over 1 million units sold worldwide driven by the success of a string of hit singles such as "New Girl Now", "Burning In Love", "Wave Babies", "Stay In the Light", "Feel It Again" and "What Does It Take", to name a few.
The band has won numerous awards including a Canadian Juno for group of year in 1986, triple platinum sales in Canada with the first 3 albums, and platinum sales for the greatest hits CD 'The Singles', released in 1989. They also received an award in June, 2015 for 100,000 + performances on Canadian radio for “Burning In Love”, “New Girl Now”, “Wave Babies” and “What Does It Take”."
Link for tickets June 7, 2024-click here
Currently, the band is touring with Streetheart another great Canadian band and they will be in Coquitlam in June- Having seen their debut back in the day(yes I am that old --I'm going to be 58 this year), and having a few of their albums in my collection--now including this one--I look forward to hearing more new music from them over the years.
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