Remate I’m finding a little difficult to listen to. At it’s best it reminds me a lot of Blur, with that sort of twinkley piano thing they do, and some really great pop songs. But at other times it sounds like just the most generic whiny pop/indie music there is. Which is a bit frustrating because I quite like Blur and think that, that would be a great direction for them. The brooding whiney pop doesn’t seem to really suit them at all. Well I mean does it really suit anyone, but they seem to just not be able to pull of that heartfelt thing.
Remate should really focus on syrupy pop music. That seems to be where they are most, ummm I was going to say comfortable, but I don’t think that’s right, I guess just where they are strongest. The pop songs work, the others don’t. also I think the 2 disc thing is too much, perhaps if they had just gone for one disc they could have really tried hard on less recordings and it might have meant less filler tracks.
One strong CD, in my mind, is better than two mediocre ones. I don’t know maybe some people want more quantity for there buck, but not me. I mean I’ll go for quantity too and if you want to go that route make an outtake album, or a live one or remixes, acoustic versions, videos; Anything is better than making a potentially great song weak through lack of focus, but maybe that’s jus me.
But really quality should be the main focus on an album like this, it is after all that heartfelt folk songwriter thing, which really only works if you feel that every song is a total outpouring of everything he feels, otherwise it comes off as kind of trite. Maybe the lack of focus other people really like.
Like I saw this band the other night and they were really ummm untight? Maybe, I’m not sure if you can say that. It sounded like people playing a bunch of different songs and it was all out of sync and I was getting really annoyed with it and couldn’t wait for them to finish. I was getting to the part where I was starting to boo them. But what was weird was the rest of the audience thought it was amazing and were screaming for more.
So don’t take my word for anything. I think I might be out of touch with reality. Or I’m just better than everyone else, but I don’t think that is very likely.
Really listening again I have a problem with the voice, there are some really nice musical pieces and there is some great guitar bits on the second side, but I find Remate falls into the trap that a lot of modern folk singers seem to get caught in; trying to sound earnest rather than singing earnestly. I mean, I think at least, I’ve said it before if you’re making truly inspirational or whatever songs you donít need to sound like a serious mid-90s rock singer, or James Blunt.
In fact the opposite ends up happening you sound like you are faking it, which you probably are. But there are some really nice sounds on here, and some nice songs, musically anyway.
