Weak, insipid and rehashed fare.
It isn’t always easy to judge an album on a 5 track sampler. Doubts immediately creep in about why these tracks were chosen. Do these songs offer the best representation of the album, allowing the reviewer to make a fair assessment of what the overall album is going to be like? Perhaps, and this is where cynicism kicks in, is it because perhaps there aren’t that many good songs on the album. If there are only five good songs on the album, why run the risk of the reviewer getting bored by listening to twelve songs in total. Therefore, it makes more sense for a record label to stick out the only listenable songs and call it a sampler. That way they hope to get some press and praise for the songs and perhaps hoodwink a few more purchases out of the review.
So lets make it clear, this isn’t a review of the Leon Jean Marie album, its an overview of five songs bundled together as an album sampler. The sings available here are all very electronic pop light and not much to get worked up about. Very much like the solo output of Darren Hayes, this sounds like the work of a man who wants to be pop but have credibility. It’s a very hard balance for anyone to achieve and in all honesty, it rarely works. Yeah, its not out and out blatant pop but it still manages to sound very safe and unbelievably sanitised. There is a clean sheen all over these tracks and if you closed your eyes you could definitely imagine them coming from an updated version of the Lighthouse Family. That’s not a good thing is it? Is it? Damn right its not so there are genuine worries about these five songs. Who knows, perhaps the other tracks on the album will offer up some Columbian Death metal as a way of balance but in all likelihood, its not going to happen is it? Its far more likely to offer up similar songs that aren’t quite up to the standard of these songs. Again, that’s not a good thing is it? Is it?
Its hard to think of what song on here stands out the best but a definite shout goes to ‘Trusted You’ as it sounds like a weaker version of Mark Ronson with a poor rap over the top of it. The strings and horns papper along quietly in the background whilst the music harks at something bigger and better than what it really is but fails along the way. ‘Bed of Nails’ is 70s pap along the lines of Supertramp if they were recording today and again, it does nothing for anyone. If these five songs are indeed the best the album has to offer then you have to run the other way if you see the full record coming. Which isn’t all bad as perhaps the album could be the answer to the growing obesity problem in the UK.