Published on Aug 29, 2000
Okay, I’ve kept quiet long enough.
I didn’t say a thing when the Backstreet Boys or 98° came
out on the market — because, frankly, I’ve liked what I’ve heard
from them. (Whether teeny-bopper music is your cup of tea or not,
you have to admit the Backstreet Boys are excellent harmony
singers.) I even kept my mouth shut about ‘N Sync, who I’ve not
enjoyed as much. I thought, “Hey, someone’s having fun with this
music. Who am
I to judge?” (What am I
saying?!? I’m a friggin’
music critic!)
That whole philosophy went out the window when I listened to
firstlove, a four-piece group out of Germany. Their independent
release
I Just Can’t Get Enough has a few moments on it which
suggest they could carve a niche out for themselves in top 40
radio, but in the end, they come across as another cookie-cutter
wanna-be band whose chops are second-rate. (I won’t even begin
discussion on why a grown man would go under the name of
“Peanut”.)
Problem number one with this band is pure and simple: they don’t
harmonize nearly enough. When they do, it’s quite pleasant.
Regrettably, it often seems that their vocals tend to overlap each
other, creating more of a sonic mush than a musically rich texture.
Tracks like “More Better Days,” “Perfect Boyfriend” and the title
track all fall under this trap — and these are tracks which could
have been stellar, at least in this genre.
The second trap is the inclusion of four — count ’em,
four — versions of the song “Freaky.” The original is lame
enough — and if the lyrics in one portion of the song say what I
think they say, well… let’s just leave it at this: it’s a line
you wouldn’t expect to hear in a teeny-bopper song. (I’d like to
confirm the lyric, but that portion of firstlove’s Web site keeps
crashing on me.) But, no,
I Just Can’t Get Enough is padded with three additional
mixes of the song, none of which add anything to the original at
all. It’s enough to make you dive for the remote control.
All of this said, tracks like “Gotta Get Movin,” “Smile” and
“Believe” do leave the glint of hope that firstlove will need to
survive in such a competitive field. Musically, they need to
harmonize more and put some focus into the instrumentation (though,
admittedly, the band had very little say in this aspect). They
already have some foothold in the market, with spots on shows like
Jenny Jones and getting Disney to use some of their songs on cable
programming. Whether this will be enough for them to stake their
place in the genre is yet to be seen.
I Just Can’t Get Enough holds out the hope of better things
to come, though this disc ends up being far too formulatic to be
anything but typical of the genre. Less padding and more attention
to the final product could be what the band needs — but until
then, sorry, but I’ve had enough.