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janoschmoldau host
Artist: Janosch Moldau
Title: Host
Genre: Electronic Pop
Release Date: 22nd November 2019
Label: Janosch Moldau Records


Album Review

JANOSCH MOLDAU sounds like quite a guy. His music, we are told, is “the perfect match for people with aching hearts and other forms of malaise.” And the man himself is “the secret hero of this scene, mixing hope, love and longing into an addictive potion...” These are hardly modest claims, but then after four albums and an ever-growing fan base, modesty seems somewhat redundant. ‘Host’ is his latest offering, and it’s clearly not shy of tackling the big issues, as God himself is the theme running throughout here, the song titles reading like some list from an evangelical prayer-book. Warning: now follows my very personal opinion on the album and according to several other reviews in magazines or on Amazon, there are many people out there who see it completely different…

It’s time to worry when your opening track, and also the song chosen as the lead single, is so abysmally weak. The accompanying video would be hilarious if it was indeed meant to be - our hero badly lip-syncs into a megaphone, and stands inexplicably in an almost empty swimming pool, as his sidekick looks terribly earnest while hitting a drum with one hand and pretending to play keyboards with the other. It’s all terribly amateur. But the major fault on ’Broken Shoulder’ - the music is certainly passable, though dull - is the weedy and unconvincing vocal. The whole thing feels like it needs an injection of something, or at least a good kick up the arse. It’s turgid and lifeless at best.

‘Simon Of Cyrene’ is a bit meatier, and has an eye on DEPECHE MODE territory, but it’s lyrically terrible, and simply lacks the melody to back up its ambition. ‘Embrace Me’ contains occasional and incongruous sharp blasts of synth that ruin any attempt to build up some atmosphere - it’s like a child shouting over all the best bits in your favourite movie, and ‘Emotionally‘ is so lightweight it doesn’t so much drift away as simple refuse to exist in the first place.

Does it get any better? Sadly not. There’s just precious little here to raise even an eyebrow of interest. Songs waft by in an overproduced bubble of blandness, the middle section of ‘Host’ possibly the most tedious waste of time in an aeon. Even the title track fails to inspire in any way. Another reedy vocal over a sparse and dull backdrop of squelches and noodling synths. Hard to stifle a smirk during ‘He Wants Me To Repent’ as one imagines The Big Guy shaking his bearded head in agreement, and everything ends, you hope for a considerable period of time, with ’Abel‘, a song so bored with itself you can just picture a vast musical yawn and a very long snooze somewhere hugely unchallenging.

This is a very poor album in my opinion. If course others might see it very different… I think there’s simply no excuse for foisting something so utterly bland and boring as this onto the world. I suspect JANOSCH MOLDAU would strongly disagree, but then as “the secret hero of the scene” he would, wouldn’t he?


Tracklist

01. Broken Shoulder
02. Simon Of Cyrene
03. Embrace Me
04. Emotionally
05. Sacred Love
06. Sense For God
07. Host
08. Angel Of Hope
09. He Wants Me To Repent
10. Abel


Line-up

Janosch Moldau
Hendrik Schindler


Website

www.janoschmoldau.com / https://www.facebook.com/janoschmoldauofficial


Cover Picture

janoschmoldau host


Rating

Music: 2
Sound: 2
Total: 2 / 10




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