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Review: Jack Foley
IT PROBABLY won't come as much of a surprise to readers to find
that I'm not a big fan of Darius.
The former Pop Idol is merely the latest in a long line of manufactured
artists who follow a pretty bog-standard songwriting process -
ie, plenty of 'catchy' pop beats and an equal number of brooding
ballads.
To be fair, Darius probably boasts a stronger voice than most,
and writes much of his own material, but his songwriting is a
million miles away from the quality of bands such as Coldplay,
Keane, Thirteen Senses and all those other bands who so frequently
miss out on the top chart positions.
Let's face it, Darius represents the musical equivalent of a
chick flick - and one that your mother might like to boot.
Live Twice lacks adventure and, to a lesser degree,
originality, and could easily be sung by a Ronan Keating or Mark
Owen.
Whereas Coldplay and co can appeal to men and women, alike, Darius
seems content to pander to the female masses, relying on his looks
to amass a lot of the interest.
On the plus side, it's nowhere near as sugar-coated or wretched
as a Will Young or Gareth Gates record, but that's not saying
much.
On tracks such as Better Man, Darius seems to be going
for a George Michael vocal style, and hints at better things,
while the verses of Resolution sound curiously like the
deep, throaty vocals of the Crash Test Dummies' lead singer.
Both represent the album at its most tolerable, but they are
quickly overtaken by the hopelessly bland likes of Stars Crash
Down, with lyrics like 'my heart's like dynamite, ready to
blow', and former single, Kinda Love, and it's annoyingly
clunky melodies.
The ballads, Live Twice and Save Me, fare little
better, and pale by comparisons to the inspired likes of Keane's
Bedshaped, or Chris Martin's Warning Sign, which
are setting the benchmarks for this sort of thing.
I only use such comparisons to point out why I'm critical of
artists such as Darius.
For contrary to some suggestions, I don't just dislike them for
the sake of it. There's just nothing that inspires me in any of
their songwriting.
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Track listing:
1. Kinda Love
2. Live Twice
3. How Do You Like It?
4. Better Man
5. Resolution
6. Stars Crash Down
7. Save Me
8. If I Could
9. Only You
10. Love To Love
11. Journey's End
12. Devil In You
13. Secret Song (Songwriting Demo)
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