Canadian band Harem Scarem released their major label debut way back in 1991, an innocuous yet superbly crafted melodic rock record which was quietly well-received.  They then went on to produce, to my mind, two of the very finest albums in the history of the genre: the seminal Mood Swings from 1993 (which was harder and took more chances than the debut) and 1995’s Voice of Reason, a record that was so forward-thinking many AOR buffs just couldn’t take it.  Both were exquisite releases for different reasons: Mood Swings was genre-defining; Voice of Reason was genre-busting.  When you’ve achieved this much with your first few releases, it’s fairly impossible to keep blowing people’s minds.  As a result, Harem Scarem have found their early fanbase hard to please ever since.  I have to confess that, as Harem Scarem’s career continued with a prolific stream of strong, if much safer, releases, I lost interest.  In fact, I stopped paying attention somewhere around 2002’s Weight of The World, and barely even noticed that the band officially ceased to be in 2008.  That said, I very much enjoyed the anniversary edition of a re-recorded Mood Swings, released last year, and its three new studio tracks revealed a band that had really benefitted from the five years off.