Artist: State Of The Union
Title: My Time Away
Genre: Future Pop
Release Date: 21st February 2014
Label: Infacted / WTII Records
Album Review
I first came to listen to STATE OF THE UNION four or five years ago with their massive hit ‘Radio Man’. What really appealed to me at that time was not only the very catchy melody, but also the vocals. ‘My Time Away’ is the 4th album of this band and comes up six years after ‘Evol Love Industry’. Johann Sebastien comes back with a new vocalist, Evannkie. It's always hard to walk in another singer's shoes... and in that case, the shoes are way too large for Evannkie's feet. As usual, my opinion is not universal... it's just an opinion. But I found the new vocal almost annoying some time and after four or five songs. Especially since this style of music is very repetitive with often the same kind of sound texture and stabs. Where the vocal made the difference on ‘Evol Love Industry’, here I have the feeling of always listening to the same song track after track.
This album is clearly designed for dance floor and I'm pretty convinced that it will succeed in providing some Club hits in EBM/ EDM/ Electro dark parties around the world... but STATE OF THE UNION to me was more than that. They release today an album that has already been done by hundred bands over the last years and there's not much. ‘Miracle’ is probably the only song that got my attention. The melody is very nice, catchier and vocals are smoother. The album includes ‘My Time away’, the 2nd single to be released from it, which is clearly targeting EBM/ EDM/ Electro dark dance floors around the globe. Another interesting track is ‘Descent’, an instrumental song going a bit darker with a hard hitting beat and EDM Synths taking control.
Note that there is also a cover of FICTIONAL's ‘Blue Lights’, which to be honest, I really don't see any interest at all compared to the original. ‘Dancing In The Dark’, (previously released with the previous singer in 2010) charted in the German DAC's Top five as well as many Radio Top 10 worldwide. The album re-recorded version is less hard hitting than the original. But I'm not convinced it was a smart move to re-record it as the vocal really suffers the comparison, even more obviously now... especially as the original version is also on the album as a bonus track. The album ends up on a great remix of ‘Radio Man’ (Floor Pounding Mix)... It unfortunately sums up everything lacking on this album
Tracklist
01. Elevate
02. My Time Away
03. Back To earth
04. Descent
05. Stupid Song
06. Five Minutes To Midnight
07. Miracle
08. Dancing In The Dark
09. Eternally
10. Blue Lights
11. Dancing In The Dark (Floor Mix)
12. Eternally
13. Blue Lights
14. Dancing In The Dark (Original Mix)
15. Radio Man (Floor Pounding Mix)
Line-up
Johann Sebastian - Music
Evannkie - Vocals
Website
https://www.facebook.com/StateOfTheUnionOfficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 5
Sound: 8
Total: 6.5 / 10
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