There's not much to say here. Robbie Rivera is always hit-and-miss with me. I just picked up two of his new singles from Kings of Tribal and love, love, LOVE them. Yet I get this and I hate, hate, HATE! it. It's a feeling of discontent because Rivera doesn't just stick to one style of music all the time. He can go from hard, late-night tribal to happy, European pop/trance with the flip of a switch. And that's exactly what is served here - pop-laden, European dance cuts. It's the uncertainty I dislike. In all honesty, I wasn't the best reviewer to do this one. It's not my thing.
A friend was in the room with me while I struggled to listen to it and was jamming away while I was dying a slow death. There is a place for this, just not in my player. But nevertheless... here we go...
Those of you looking for a DJ-mixed complilation, look elsewhere. What Ultra and Robbie Rivera have created is an artist album with thirteen pop-tastic, vocally charged songs all timing in at under five minutes. As I said before, there's a definite, heavy Euro feel pulsating through this disc. It would be totally at home playing on the radio in the UK and would work just as well at any of their mega-clubs. That, unfortunately, is exactly what I don't like about it. Heavy synth work with heavier basslines and "cheezy" vocals that don't really have any emotion backing them.
The first single comes from newcomer Elliot John titled "WHICH WAY YOU'RE GOING" and was inspired by Coldplay. There's some okay synth work going on and John does a good vocal delivery but there's nothing really driving the track along for me. Same goes for the track "FIREBIRD."
We also get assaulted with dime-a-dozen female "vocalists." Another thing about European dance music that gets to me is the fact that they continue to produce no-talent, voiceless young blonde girls who, rather than sing, talk along to the melody with their high, whiny vocal. Most of the middle of this CD is filled with these types of tracks.
What I love about a female vocal is the EMOTION, the SOUL. That's what's lacking in these cold voices. Listen to the bonus track, "GIRLFRIEND" and you'll hear what I mean. With the seventh track, "ALL ABOUT YOU," we start to head in a more talented, soulful direction, but fail about halfway there.
Not to say that I totally hated everything. There were at least two tracks that I only semi-hated. "Do You Want More" kicks off great. A HUGE filtered bassline that I thought was going to blow my woofer pumps it along. I was just about to start dancing until this horrible Jamacian reggae vocal drops (along with my jaw). A dub of this would be nice or an instrumental but "do I want more?" ..... no thanks.
Word to the wise though: this is just MY opinion. Like I said, my friend jammed away while I listened to this. Fans of the genre are sure to get into it as well....I'm just not one of them.
