Nominated by: KS
Music club: Wander to Wozza's
Playlist addition: (To Be) Without You
When I started listening to this album I wasn't sure if it was a long-lost gem from the 1980s, or a retro attempt to recreate the 1980s. That big sound, those eighties synths, the gated drum sound, the big vocal style - all the eighties touch points.
I lost track of those touch points, but here's the biggies I noticed off the bat: Rick Astley; The Thompson Twins; Chris Isaak; The Cure; INXS; Icehouse; Flock of Seagulls; Kajagoogoo; OMD; Pet Shop Boys; Marlon Williams; Lawrence Arabia; 80's Bowie; Depeche Mode; Gary Numan; Flight of the Conchords doing the eighties; No Man; and others (even hints of Tim Finn on Long Distance Lover). The guy's a magpie!
If you put that lot into a blender you'd get Wings of Desire, but, and here's the thing - Hemi sounds like a new thing, somehow. Somehow, he doesn't sound nostalgic for that period of music - more like, it's a period that has inspired him. I like that.
There is nothing here I dislike. In fact, I like a lot of eighties synth-pop. Yes, even some of those highly processed synth/drum sounds. They were/are so catchy!
My favourites were (To Be) Without You and the title track (generally lead off songs are often the strongest song on the album I find). No Future No Future No Future is also a successful final song with that heavier Depeche Mode style.
The negatives: it doesn't all work (6 April '13 was an early skipper), and by the third listen the novelty value was starting to wear off. Usually, albums get better on repeat listens but for me the strong songs stood out more and the weaker ones became more obvious. Plus, those synths and drum sounds began to wear me down a tad. So, it started out a four-star effort and ended up as a three-star one.
Minor quibbles, largely. For the most part, this remains a lot of fun in a guilty pleasure/karaoke kind of way, although I wouldn't shell out my hard-earned pay teaching Year 10 on it.
Regardless - thanks for the intro KS - Hemi is a guy I'd never heard of before. Always good to try out new things.
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