LANDFALL – Elevate

I was very fond of Landfall’s debut album titled The Turning Point (2020) as it boasted great songs with a sense of immediacy and youthful vigor to them, so naturally, I was curious as to how their latest offering, Elevate, would turn out. Sadly, it fails to capitalize on the momentum and power of its predecessor and feels like a damp squid and a lackluster performance overall. These guys are more than capable musicians but those big juicy choruses, infectious riffs, and spine-tingling vocal melodies that were all over their previous record are lacking this time around, which entails that much of Elevate feels like middle-of-the-road hard rock similar to what countless other outfits have churned out. ‘Two Strangers’, ‘H.O.P.E.’, and the title track are catchy and well-written affairs that show how cool Landfall are when they are firing on all cylinders and blending melodic rock, AOR, and hard rock to good effect, but the remaining tunes are unremarkable, and the strangely muffled sound of the LP is a source of frustration to these ears too. Hopefully, the third album will be a more noteworthy, inspired, and memorable slice of rock than Elevate is.