FM - Indiscreet (1986)

With a sound lighter than a helium-filled feather, British AOR band FM broke onto the scene with Indiscreet, their debut album, in 1986 which showcased their ability to pen a fine melodic tune with a rock guitar undercurrent: think Isolation-era Toto and you won’t be far from the sound conjured-up by FM.

The album opens with one of their more well-known tracks, albeit through Iron Maiden covering the tune as the B-side to their Stranger in a Strange Land single, That Girl which is a driving melodic number with a good hook and some nice guitar touches from Chris Overland. The splendidly-named Didge Digital (Phil Manchester) also adds some nice keyboard flourishes to the track.

Other Side of Midnight is up next which has a thumping anthemic start and then drifts into the verse with crisp chugging guitar and the great vocal range of Steve Overland put to good use. The chorus is catchy and features harmony vocals and a keyboard melody overlaid on the guitar chords – a pleasant if formulaic commercial rock number.

Love Lies Dying is, as the title would lend you to believe, a ballad – not in the cheesy Winger, Mr Big kind of way though – more akin to Journey’s lighter more ‘heart felt’ moments opening with keyboard and electronic percussion which gradually builds into a medium tempo tale of emotional turmoil! I Belong To The Night lifts the mood with a stabbing keyboard riff akin to Bon Jovi’s Runaway (who I seem to recall had FM as their support act back in the day) and is a pleasant if unremarkable piece of radio-friendly rock fodder.

American Girls has a harmony twin-guitar lick intro which is unfortunately then subsumed by a rather cheesy keyboard riff and things are just on the right side of the ‘acceptable rock’ line although the lyrics in particular are very poor. The keyboard intro to Hot Wired leads the listener to, well, more of the same – pleasant vocal melodies and guitars with stacks of chorus and delay creating a clean, crisp sound that I tend to wish had a bit more bite!

For me personally, by the time the album gets to Face to Face it’s getting a bit one-dimensional – that’s not an out and out criticism as FM do what they do really well – as it’s pleasant but lacking a bit of standout dynamism. Frozen Heart up next was a minor chart-troubler as a single and is pleasant ballad territory. Heart Of The Matter and Love Lasts Forever then close the album in much the same style as the rest of the songs here: well-crafted and written.

In summary, and to qualify my above comments, this is a good album – a really good album of its genre – and quite why FM missed-out on the Toto/Journey/Styx AOR big-time is a moot point: however, I would suggest that where the other bands mentioned triumphed is that they had a little more dynamism and diversity than FM in my opinion. I remember seeing them a couple of times live in the mid-1980s and their live show, despite being impeccably performed, had the same effect on me as this album – it only holds the interest for the first few tracks as one polished smooth track runs into another.

• Steve Overland – Vocals/Guitar
• Merv Goldsworthy – Bass
• Pete Jupp – Drums
• Chris Overland – Guitar
• Didge Digital – Keyboards