01. Do It All Again
02. Déjà Vu
03. These Tears I Cry
04. Long Way From Home
05. Set Me Free
06. Yesterday's News
07. Time Well Wasted
08. 9 Out Of 10
09. Run With Me
10. Love Is the Key
11. Please Please Please
12. Ma Chérie

Verdict: 10

Artist: Wigelius
Album: Tabula Rasa
Release date: 29 January 2016
Label: AOR Heaven

Anders Wigelius participated in one of those soaps creating new artists on tv, like American idol, fuckin' awful if you ask me. He landed a deal with Frontiers, a label that release just about anything and the debut, Reinventions was released in 2012. I missed out on that album of obvious reasons

 

Anders Wigelius is a true mercenary composing music for a living. He successfully has forged tracks for as varied styles as Lasse Stefanz (a Swedish Hill-Billy band) as well as several J-pop bands.

My expectations for Tabula Rasa was less than nothing and to my great surprise the album opens up with a confident arena track along the veins of Journey, Toto, Rick Springfield, Loverboy and Foreigner. This is AOR at it's best! And the album deliver great songs from the beginning to the end, music that gives you energy and makes you play air guitar.

Hands down, after a few listens it's obvious that the Wigelius has managed to craft an album worthy of a great reputation, Tabula Rasa is just about as good as an AOR album can be. The production sound great and the arrangements are varied and interesting. The choirs are huge lifting the choruses just like it should be, the electric guitars soaring above the tracks like a bird looking for it's prey.

The last track, Ma Chérie should have been left out altogether though, there is a limit to how much cheese we can digest but all together this could be one of the best releases of 2016 and it is released in january with a great promise.