For those who remember, the AWOL moniker was frequently mentioned ever since they contributed two songs for BigO's New School Rock II CD compilation, namely “Postcards” and “Claude's Dog”. Their adult oriented rock (AOR) made them sound older and more matured than they actually were, and the whole seriousness of the sound scheme set themselves strata above many amateurs from the Singapore bandwagons, having got invited to play in many venues with many headlining moments. Formed in 1989, AWOL also known as “Artistes Without License”, consisted of Lenny Garcia (lead vocals, guitars), Christopher Toh (lead guitar, vocals), Kevin Netto (bass), Fin (drums) and Colin Teo (keyboards). On “Midnight In June”, Dominic Wan was roped in to perform guitars on “Someday”. Musically the debut album rich in soul, is deeply steeped in earthly hue, a little mundane but nevertheless warm and catchy. They sound like they were influenced by U2, Crowded House and REM, but they were also closet Megadeth and Testament fans according to their bio. There are many strong numbers on the CD, with some of my favourites being the energetic “Tear Down These Walls”, the moody yet uplifting “Midnight In June”, two songs with very motivational U2 gist flowing through, “Still Building”, a song inspired by the Hotel New World disaster (for those who never lived through the days, Singapore actually suffered a serious deadly building collapse back in 1986), the infectiously solemn reggae number “Russell The Cat”, the two improved tracks originally from New School Rock II and the beautiful shimmering acoustic number “Someday”, which sounds like Kansas on “Dust In The Wind”.

The band took themselves seriously and it showed on their masterwork, but unfortunately the nuances, conditions and mills of the Singapore society did not permit continued existence of this band and that's the last I've heard from them. So in all technicality, they were literally AWOL this time.