Color Theory - Life's Fairytale

This is Color Theory's 4th album, which seamlessly resumes where the last album, Perfect Tears, left off. Life's Fairytale is a very romantic album. Brian Hazard stuck to his well-established style of minimalistic electronic compositions combined with classically tinged piano. As with his previous releases, he attached great importance to intelligent lyrics that complement his compositions.

I really enjoyed the fact that Brian made use of more electronic sounds. As I've known Brian for a few years, I got the feeling that he tried to hit my taste in this case J!
With "Hold You" Color Theory also dared a walk through blues and swing, which demonstrates Brian's creativity - a direct hit!

The album also includes the Anything Box cover, "I Felt The Pain," which he recorded for an Anything Box tribute album that never was released. It was a really good choice to put it on the album, as it is not inferior to the original and perfectly fits with the album concept. Life's Fairytale also includes 5 remixes of songs which can be found on the earlier albums Perfect Tears and Tuesday Song.

My favorites are "Wishing I Had An Umbrella", "End of the Night", and "Everything I Thought I Had To Be".

In my opinion, this is Color Theory's best release so far. It delivers high demand romantic SynthPoP that creates much warmth.

TYCHO BRAHE - Tasty

If you expected an album with lots of new songs then you will be disappointed, as "Tasty" is a remix album that consists of remixes of their best songs, one B-side ("Delos") and two cover versions of well known 80s songs ("Send Me An Angel" and "Tainted Love"). "Send Me An Angel" is a very good and absolutely danceable cover, yet "Tainted Love" doesn't work- too boring and sluggish! But I have no problem forgiving this misfortune as all the other remixes are excellent and they do not destroy the feeling of the original versions.

I will not forget this album at my next party. Play loud!

SWEEP - Emptiness, Your Loneliness (Maxi-CD)

"Emptiness, Your Loneliness" comes with three remixes and the B-side "Favorite Song". Comparable to Sweep's debut EP "Sweepeepee", which was released in 1997, it is a milestone in the band's evolution. "Sweepeepee" sounded immature and was poorly produced. Both songs on this single are very melodic with a touch of melancholy, based on the classic SynthPoP sound and are very suited for the dancefloor. The remixes are mixed by Echo Image and System22, but they cannot reach the quality of the original version.

I am really looking forward to their first full-length album. This is another highlight right up there with Echo Image in the Norwegian sky!

T.O.Y. - Space Radio

With their debut album under the name T.O.Y. (Trademark of Youth), T.O.Y. tries to beam you directly into the future. And they did well as songs like "We Are Electric" or "Astronauts" can prove with melodic melodies complimented by futurist effects. I really like the singer's deep, powerful and absolutely clear voice which perfectly goes well with the proper and clear compositions. Throughout the album the compositions have an emphasis on clear highs and full basses with synth-strings in the background, which lead to a very unvaried album. I really get the feeling that T.O.Y. produced the songs one after the other without any new ideas and sensitivity for details.

The album has some very danceable songs, like "We Are Electric" and "Strange Modern Art" which freshens up this otherwise sluggish sounding album and saves this CD from an average rating.