BOULEVARD / WHAT'S UP (re-issue 2012)

The Swedish group BOULEVARD from Gothenburg at their time was regarded as a raising, talented and extremely promising outfit in the Melodic Hard Rock scene. Nevertheless, the band showed a lack of assertiveness. At that time the A&;R of their record label SATELIT RECORDS underrated the musicians and after all did not have any serious interest in pushing the guys.

In 1987, singer Roy El Hoshy, guitarists Lennart Widegren and Dick Börtner, bassist Mikael Magnusson and drummer Morgan Pettersson released their first single „One The Line - Still On The Way“. In the same year, their debut album “What’s Up” saw the light of day before the previous single was re-issued with a new, improved artwork in 1988. Unfortunately, these releases did not bring the band to the next level. Finally, as so many other promising newcomers, BOULEVARD split up.

The bonus material contains some demo stuff. Musical Boulevard had everything back then to become big rock stars!! Well-played songs, clever and catchy choruses and the image that it was necessary for a melodic 'hairy' band! What happened then? The answer is simple and well-known to everyone who is into this kind of music. Grunge, harder sound and generally the melodic sound back then was saturated! In the musical part of the "What's Up" now; "Solid As A Rock" is one of my favorite tunes, "Fallen Angel" is very good and "I'm What You Need" is a purely commercial pop-metal song! The lead singer Roy El Hoshy, has a very good vocal range and achieves to give an extra 'push' to the band's final result.

Too bad the Boulevard did not continue to release albums like this one! The bottom line is that Boulevard is a band that deserves the attention of every fan of melodic rock sound. For many years, this album was hard to find. Finally, thanks to Yesterrock this diamond can be gained by all and should be added to the collection of every fan of AOR / Melodic Hard Rock sound!
HeavyParadise's Rating : 8/10

Track List : 1. Solid As A Rock 2. Fallen Angel 3. On The Line 4. Give Me Love 5. Surrender 6. I'm What You Need 7. Heart Of A Stranger 8. Running 9. Still On My 10. Bad Lover 11. Millions Of Faces 12. On The Line(demo) 13. Still On My Way(demo) 14. Running(demo)