After more than eight years of silence, Crystal Blue are back with a new album called Detour. This record contains eleven melodic rock songs. The style of Crystal Blue alternates between Pop and Rock. At some times the band tries too hard to make easy-listening popular rock songs. “Back On Track”, for example, is just too sweet to be taken seriously. Listening to the lyrics you sometimes get the impression that you are listening to religion rock. The peaceful harmonious chorus does add to this impression. “Second Chance” is another softy. Both guitar and vocal melody are taken directly from The Eagles’ “Wasted Times”.

The music on “Detour” is best described as playing it safe. I have no doubt, however, that a lot of people will like this CD. It should do fine as background music, but it clearly misses the edge to attract the attention of a critical audience. This edge is not lacking on “Move On”, a track that starts out most promising with a hard rock / metal intro, giving it a solid structure. The song contains orchestral melodies; this approach seems to do more justice to Thomas Lassars vocals. In conclusion: this album is about average, with some better tracks. The fact is that we have heard this all before.