Sunday, August 7, 2011

DANNY NEUBECKER: "Here I Am"


Rating: 4/10

Label: Feedback Records /doolittle Group 2011

Review by Kimmo Toivonen

The press bio says that Danny Neubecker "continues the great tradition of Swedish melodic pop/rock that Sweden are known for since the big success of ABBA, Roxette & Europe"... Indeed, Swedes know how to produce catchy pop, so I decided to check this album out. And ummm... Neubecker still has a long way to go before he's in the same league as Roxette and the likes.

The "rock" in Neubecker's pop/rock isn't exactly the dominating part. He has the kind of a "whispering" vocal style favoured by many other pop artists, suitable for cutesy ballads but not really anything harder-edged. A good thing for him that the two more uptempo songs of the album ("You Light Up My Life" and "Here I Am") aren't too hard rocking, merely pop songs with a barely noticeable rock edge.

Some of the melodies sound disturbingly familiar, but none as familiar as the chorus of "Believe Again" which rips off Lara Fabian's "I Will Love Again" rather shamelessly. Those of you more in tune with the contemporary pop hits might find some other similarities in the other songs.

Despite all I've written above, I do think that Neubecker has some potential to be a decent poprocker if he wants to. More uptempo songs, better hooks and less sugary ballads. As it is, "Here I Am" is just too damn polite, wimpy and squaky clean for me. Where's the ROCK?



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