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Paul Geng:
Mnemosyne
This is sort of an odd record. Throughout the thirteen tracks on this album, which clocks in at a little over an hour, Paul Geng embraces aspects from both the sensitive folk-rock singer-songwriter and the mid-eighties synth-playing rock band. Unfortunately, more often than not, he ends up embracing all of the clichs of both genres. The synth aspects come from the recording itself Geng recorded the entire album himself using his guitars and a Casio keyboard, which means lots of fake drums. All the guitars are chorus pedaled out, and all the vocals have this reverb-echo effect on them, which only highlights the songs lack of hummable melodies. The songs feature the usual suspects when it comes to topics: memories of lost love, promises of hope (Mnemosyne is the Greek goddess of memory, and the title track was written a few days before September 11th), and the like. This would be fine if the vocals showed any emotion whatsoever, but at no point do I notice any hint of sadness, anger, or joy they are just there. The recording sounds sterile, and all the effects used on everything hurts the core of what Geng is trying to do, which is to make meaningful music. Overall the album reminds me of all the bland 1980s pop ballads your Richard Marx, your Peter Cetera, your Don Henley. Its billed as adult contemporary, which I guess means Im neither especially if contemporary means sounds like stuff from twenty years ago. I think that if hed put this disc out then, it probably would have sold like gangbusters, and we'd be hearing him all over light radio today (well, only if you listen to light radio, but you get my point). It just doesnt seem very relevant now.
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