Jonjon gives his opinion on the offering from Portland's electro duo, Night Surgeon:
I love electro pop but I can’t recommend Night Surgeon. I’m not sure when bands and producers decided the best sound was late 1980s, early 1990s videogame sound effects but it was sometime from 2004 onwards. Night Surgeon fit this mould. There are lots of beeps and dreamy synths but there’s no boundary-pushing on this album and barely any soul. It all sounds perfunctory. The best I can say is that they sound like Duran Duran circa 1987-89 (the early wilderness years).
There are two tracks where Night Surgeon seem excited and these are the highlights; Roman Error and the next track on the album, Brick Moon. In all fairness these should get them some notice, Brick Moon seems ripe for a remix and Roman Error as a standalone track. These arrive just before the middle of the album and are the only memorable moments. The final track Let Go brings some spark back but it isn’t original – it could be interchanged with any mainstream pop rock album from the last 13 years.
The rest of the album... well, it isn’t so great. It isn’t unlistenable, it’s just dreary. It’s electro pop with some occasional veering towards pop rock. Some of the tracks sound as if the “electro” was an afterthought. On a positive note the vocalist is good, although as with the songs there isn’t much variation to either style or the range he sings in.
There is nothing wrong with this album but it doesn’t do enough to set Night Surgeon apart from the dozens of other bands and acts in their genre. Electro pop will be popular for a while yet but this band won’t be at the forefront with this. Despite their artificiality 3OH!3 and Ke$ha have more pop and dare I say it verve. Night Surgeon may not be artificial, they may be able to play their instruments but they have committed a cardinal pop sin – they’re a bit boring.
Review by Jonjon. Check out the below sampler of one of his highlights:
2 comments:
Interesting stuff.
Tacky and boring. Nothing lifts the hideous mixture of bland late 80's sounding drums and bass. The video game sounds are the dirty skerricks of sugar left behind in the measuring cup. Hardly worth adding.
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