Satin It's about time

Every melodic rock fan with half a brain knows that there is no such thing as the perfect AOR album. From the late '70s through to the early '90s we were awash with perfect moments but, for the past two and a half decades, bands have matched the gems of that period with only very limited success. These days, making records is cheaper and faster; sonically sub-standard AOR albums arrive at an alarming rate and are all accompanied by unhelpful amounts of hype, so it's no wonder that fans have become cynical about new releases. How refreshing it is, then, to come across an artist whose press makes no claim whatsoever and who has made an album that doesn't sound as if it was cobbled together in a hurry. One-man freaky genius (he plays, sings, produces and mixes everything) Tom Satin quietly released his debut in 2014 and now the follow-up, It's About Time, has arrived seemingly out of thin air. While it's not perfect, I'd say it's about as close as anyone has got in a very long time.