Harem Scarem – Mood Swings II
Frontiers Records
http://www.frontiers.it/album/5160/

Rating: B

Twenty years ago Canadian rockers Harem Scarem released their seminal album Mood Swings.  The album basically gave them a career.  They are still around today because of that album.  It put them, so to speak, on the rock and roll map, both in and out of their home country. 

The band has continued on far past their second album as they kept rocking until 2008.  Eventually, they reappeared as a headliner at the Firefest in England.  At that show, due to the historical significance of reforming, they performed the entire Mood Swings album live.  This lead to the band touring in many places they had never spent too much time in before they broke up, including the USA at the Melodic Rock Fest put on by the popular website www.melodicrock.com. 

See a theme here?  It is quite natural that the band decided to remake the album for this special twenty year anniversary.  They did the entire album from scratch and even threw in three bonus tracks—new songs in the style of the songs on their classic album.  This lead to a bonus video of the making of the album…damn these guys are on a roll. What can they do next?  Not sure…but it will probably have something to do with this album! 

The bottom line here is that this is a band that probably should have gotten our attention way back when and it is so cool that we are now able to revisit this music.  One listen to “Saviors Never Cry” and “World Gone to Pieces” will be met with a head nod as you reach for the volume knob to crank this sucker up!

Tracklisting:
CD:
Saviors Never Cry
No Justice; Stranger Than Love
Change Comes Around
Jealousy
Sentimental Blvd.
Mandy
Empty Promises
If There Was A Time
Just Like I Planned
Had Enough
World Gone To Pieces
Anarchy
Brighter Day.

DVD:
 “Re-Making Of Mood Swings” documentary
 Audio Files: Change Comes Around, Saviours Never Cry, No Justice

By Jeb Wright