SIDE-LINE
MEDIA MOTEL REVIEW
Charlene April (vocals and lyrics) and Daniel Guenther (music and production) strike back with the 3rd full length album of their common brainchild: Blind Faith And Envy. The least I can say is that their sound considerably evolved in style. I really loved their previous work, which was more into typical pop-anthems, but “Media Motel” seriously gained in power. “My Life Is Ordinary” opening this album sounds like a pure metamorphosis… but a damned good one! It all sounds like they’ve been influenced by The Birthday Massacre. Some hard guitar riffs inject some extra power while the initial pop side remains the other main element of their work. The vocals of Charlene April are now sweet and fragile, but then harsher and charismatic. She’s a real great front lady, but the compositions of Daniel Guenther deserve some special mention as well. I don’t want to speak about complexity in the writing, but about a real good balance between electronics and guitar. The song structures are perfectly elaborate and constantly merge quieter and heavier parts. After an astonishing debut with songs like “Master Of Angels”, “Media Motel” and “Dehumanized” the album progressively moves towards more typical pop fields. Let’s say that Blind Faith And Envy here takes a kind of break delivering some softer, but cool pieces as well. The “Gentle Delay”-song is definitely one of them! It’s just a pity that they only released 9 songs. Next we get 5 remixes by bands like Felix Marc, Edge Of Dawn, Neuroactive (that’s a nice comeback!), Liquid Divine and DJ Lawrence. I here especially like the some more poppy remix of “Rising Tide” by Edge Of Dawn and the elaborated and heavenly remix of “Media Motel” by Liquid Divine. “Media Motel” is a refreshing pop album with several cool songs!
(DP:7/8)DP.
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