Argh! Parentheses! This time in the album title! And more 80s music!
I almost want to criticize "Love Is A Stranger" for sampling from old Nintendo games, except that's impossible since the NES wasn't even released when this album was recorded. So maybe it's the other way... the guys writing 8-bit sound and music for the original NES games were ripping off the Eurythmics.
Good news- Unlike a couple of recent 80s albums I've heard the sound of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is really sharp and clean. Bad news- all the instrumentation appears to be done with synthesizers. Good news- 2 of the first 3 songs have really solid beats and are lively. I didn't expect this when I first started reviewing these albums, but much of the 80s music I've reviewed has tended to be really droning and dreary. A song like "Wrap It Up" (an ode to doggy bags?) feels heavily influenced by Michael Jackson, which is a positive direction to take. The early tunes also mix things up by varying their melody, though it would be more effective if they didn't use the same heavy synth sound for every backing track.
The songs tend to be a bit over-packed with effects. Near the end of "The Walk" there's a muted trumpet solo that just sounds obtrusive. The male backing vocals on that track could have been blended better as well. Then there's the title track, which I probably only hate because it's so easy to get that synth loop stuck in my head for weeks at a time.
Eh, I guess I lean towards kinda liking this album. It's not as useless as other 80s music so I'll give it a solid 3 stars. I'm surprised, I thought I was going to despise it!
No comments:
Post a Comment