Coming from the Johansson brothers (both Jens and Anders), a pop album might be out of the question right, I mean these guys are pretty much two of the forerunning musicians of both Power Metal and the whole neo-classical progressive/symphonic Metal movement, right. Well, I guess everybody has a sweet tooth for pop sensibility.
Well, for those of us who know about this record, originally released in Japan back in 1997, probably have done the deed of attempting to bid for this sought after record on Ebay, sadly lost in the cracks in a time where Metal was beginning to really start to roar its place above the underground.
For a pop record, it's not bad at all, if you look further into it it's more of an
AOR related record, that combines power pop with a huge guitar presence, think of it as something that combines the vocal harmonies and the songwriting prowess of the Beatles and the Byrds, while keeping more of a metallic riff structure behind the guitar sound, instead of a Rickenbacker jangling through a Vox AC-30, and not to mention that this lacks the cheese factor of many pop bands making it the more straight ahead rock oriented.
Among the
Snake Charmer line up we have the Johansson brothers, vocalist Goran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen), axeman Benny Jansson and bassist Per Stadin making up this montage; among their sound we have a mixture of late period Enuff Z' Nuff, Electric Light Orchestra (especially in the vocal harmonies, but minus the strings), and some of Glenn Hughes' more rockin' solo material, hell, Edman sounds like Hughes at times. Cuts like
"Miracle Man," "Take a Look at Yourself," and
"Not a Day Without You" show the intellectual stance of the hooks and melodies. The more rock driven cuts include
"Need a Little Help," "Heart of a Demon," and
"White Noise Boogie," which is appropriately titled, mounts the heaviest cut on the record, but what would a record like this be without ballads;
"Life on Mars" and
"Free Floating" round out Backyard Boogaloo's plethora of diversity.
Filled with the driving guitars, shaking tambourines, and discrete harmonies, not to mention more Hammond/Piano oriented keyboards from Jens, rather than the whole scope of synthesizers, to compliment the guitar solos and the musical backdrop,
Snake Charmer brings forth a non syrupy pop sensibility to the Hard Rock/Metal world. Again this is what mainstream pop should sound like, rather than those MTV conjugated products.
Written by
Hashman Wednesday, November 26, 2003
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