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When it comes to dance music like this, I stand behind my "any monkey with a laptop" opinion. Ok, they might have an acoustic guitar too, but I'm willing to bet they just might have picked it up at Target, if they have those in Stockholm. Proof of the lack of musical integrity is the image of their dorm room sized studio in the CD case, featuring a couple of midi controllers and a monitor.
The Central Bank is your average Euro trash disco dance house music: contrived, relentlessly bass heavy, slickly produced vocals. The same you've heard before, and I know you've heard this before. These guys are more about image than anything else. The press release says that "we take care of that ourselves", referring to the fact that they already have internet ready images and video for a major label release, as well as "high resolution photos, posters, and so on."
Vocally, the singers are the same. I really can't tell one from the other: they both sing, and they both suck. No really. I'm hearing a lot of shaky harmony with not a lot of strong singing. I guess they are on key, but when you only have 3 notes you're singing, no worries, mate. The lyrics have the personality of a roof shingle. Song subjects reference urgency, banking, and generally getting into someone's pants.
To thoroughly enjoy music like this, I really feel that you must be into the dance scene, which is not entirely based on creativity or integrity but more on style and impact. This album accomplishes what the duo sets out to present: an easily packaged product for you to consume. However, if you intend to market yourself as a product, you must have something to offer that is new and fresh, which is lacking in this album.
There are a couple of tracks that stand out. I like track five, the Week of Love, for a little while as it has a desperate sound to it, like Pet Shop Boys. You will be Free features an electric guitar with a really cool early U2-ish sound. And then there's Rocker, blatantly featuring a very vanilla electric guitar track. Also, there is what sounds to be an recording of an eagle on track one, which is kinda cool, I guess.
So, in conclusion, if you're searching through the singles bin at the record store, you'll probably see something from these guys soon. This is club music. There's not much to it. It's about the equivalent of a Big Mac to me. You can get this shit anywhere, and there isn't much good to be had from eating it up. In fact- you might get a stomach-ache.
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