Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
A key signature may change over time, the inscription fade, no longer resemble the strong force of a passionate and courage filled pen and yet the Autograph remains vivid, noteworthy and collectable, if not for its memory then for the stature it represents and the autograph of the dedicated will always survive in one form or another.
Autograph may be a name to which the younger Rock fans might have not have gleaned upon, the name, especially on this side of the Atlantic may have been lost to Time, thrown in amongst the music acts that fed America’s new found confidence in the genre in the 80s, and yet with the art of the passionate and the unwaveringly productive, Autograph rise from 1980s demise. With Marc Wieland producing the backdrop to the new sound as a very enjoyable drummer to listen to as he keeps the beat not only in check but adding musical venom with sincere attitude, the band’s new five song E.P., Louder, only serves to prove that you cannot keep a good band down forever.
Together with Steve Lynch and Randy Rand resuming their duties and Simon Daniels capturing the spirit of the time but with fresh, seemingly inexhaustible determination and refusing to let history stand in the band’s way again, Autograph have pounced like a stalking panther through the abundant foliage of resurgent rock, the lead up may have been verging on the quiet, but Louder is the prey being caught and devoured with famished cool.
The five tracks, You Are Us, We Are You, I Lost My Mind In America, Every Generation, Watch It Now and the seismic bellowing command of Turn Up The Radio all garner energy and the feel of renaissance, a rebirth which has been coming with the drip feed of tentative singles, is now wonderfully complete. The reinvigoration, the refusal to let other Rock bands from the period have their way not lost upon the listener’s ears and whilst the end of the 80s decade saw perhaps more than the fall of the Berlin Wall, it also spelled dissatisfaction with how Rock was perceived for the majority of what followed; Autograph at least step back up to the microphones with honour held high, the signature not having faded at all.
Ian D. Hall