Pete Sandberg - Back In Business | ||
| Tracks:
When The Night Comes |
The Band: |
Label: blueStome Producers: Fredrik Bergengren Year: 1998 Total Playing Time: 55:47 mins:sec Review date: 30 Sept 1998 |
| Web site:
Email: | ||
| Rating: 8/9 | ||
| Verdict: Relax, have fun, listen to some classy AOR. | ||
| This was a unexpected visitor to my letterbox. Pete Who? OK, so the blurb mentioned Midnight Sun, Alien & Madison. Erm............Still, Pete Who? as far a I was concerned. A quick listen. By now I was thinking, I don't know who he is, but this a hell of an album. With Savannah last month & Pete Sandberg this month, things are looking good for us old fashioned AOR fans.
Those nice people at Hard Roxx put my curiousity to rest my including an interview with him in their October issue. This is Pete's first album, which I guess has been available in Japan for a while. Here, in Europe, blueStone Music have just released it. Fans of his work might like to know that a new Midnight Sun album, plus a new solo effort are about to hit the shops. The album starts of with a series of lightweight AOR tunes. The emphaisis is clearly on melody & Pete's voice is central stage. Then the Dan Reed style funk of Big Bad Rap catches you by surprise. With a name like Babe, it just had to be a ballad, and a damned good one to. River Of Tears stays in AOR ballad terratory, but this time it is a much bigger production. A December Monday gets the funk out once again. By this stage you'll be thinking - "hey, this is quite good". While you're in this positive frame of mind, Pete hits you with his 'best shot'. Cold Hearted Woman is the undoubted star of the show. A gloriously catchy chunk of uptempo AOR. A finger clickin' & foot stompin' gem. Worth the price of admission alone. So good that you're gonna hit the repeat button a couple of times to have another listen before moving on. The ultra slow ballad - Scared - tries it's best follow up, but sounds ordinary in comparison. Having tried funk, Pete give us a bit of bluesy/funky soul on Unchain Your Heart. Check out the credits and you see that Closer To Heaven is a FM number. I'm not sure if this appears on any FM album, but Pete does a good job with it here. That relaxed laid-back feeling that permeates the album continues on the final track, Need Your Lovin'. The blueStone describe this as rock mixed with pop & easy-listening AOR. Couldn't have put it better myself. Pete does 'the business' big time. | ||
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