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FM
Brotherhood

Frontiers (2025)
Rating: 8.5/10

I don’t think there has ever been a band with a richer sound than UK rockers FM. Still going strong after several decades in the business, the guys also remain one of the most underrated acts around, but a group which continuously puts out quality material.

Brotherhood, the 15th full-length studio album from FM, is another rewarding slab of warming rock music driven by Steve Overland’s superb vocals. The band do not follow trends or paint their sound with cheap frills, instead you get an honest rock sound with dashes of swagger, blues and soul.

FM are masters at crafting stirring ballads (‘Just Walk Away’), funky dollops (‘Love Comes To All’) and the more AOR-orientated 80s soundtrack style of rock (‘Raised On The Wrong Side’). They effortlessly outlay grandiose statements, and the majesty of it all comes naturally as solos ooze like warm honey and drums and bass tumble with nonchalance. Put a song like ‘Chasing Freedom’ in the U.S. charts and watch every older person crave the 80s once again as they cruise down sun-baked highways with the roof down.

Of course, FM isn’t careless in its casual nature, the boys still rock (‘Do You Mean It’ and ‘The Enemy Within’) even if at some turns there’s a softer edge, but these angles merely show us the variation that FM rarely gets credit for.

FM could release a song every week for the rest of my life and I’d be beaming with joy. Brotherhood is simply another cool and calming episode in the extraordinary discography of a band that should be filling stadiums worldwide.

Neil Arnold

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