So where does this new year find the boys? Well, my fist impression was, terrible title and terrible artwork but the music is so, so. It's neither the toe curling dirge of "Release" nor the zenith of "Introspective" or "Behaviour"; its a perfectly inoffensive vanilla album.
Ironically there is no hot spot in the track list; it's consistently middling in both production and songwriting quality. "Willow-the-wisp" is that brooding four on the floor track that Neil and Chris do so well and sets the album up brilliantly. They then follow up with "You are the one" which sounds like the bastard child of "Winner" and "The Only One". Placing a track like this at number two completely robs the album of the promise of the introduction and clears the metaphorical dance floor. "Happy People" tries vainly to revive the dance vibes but TR-909 snares in 2020? Really?
"I don't wanna" is one of those octave bassline 80's tracks that wafts in and out without making much impression. "Hoping for a miracle" sounds like a Diane Warren cast off - but one the boys actually wrote this time rather than paying a small fortune for it. The singles "Dreamland" and "Monkey Business" are confident and well executed. I can image Chris smiling wryly at the thought of "Monkey Business" (check out the video if you can). "Only In The Dark" sounds like it was made from the same recipe book that The Human League used to use - and that isn't a bad thing.
What is bad is "Burning the Heather". When it comes on I break out into cold sweats thinking its 2002 and "Release" is coming back to get me. Then we reach the most contentious moment on the album, the coup de grâce: "Wedding In Berlin". Personally, I quite like it. Some of the descriptions I read before I heard it made me worried. Very worried. Dance beats with cheesy lyrics, all topped off with blasts of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March"? But in my opinion the quality of the groove means that it just about succeeds.
But to be honest, a lot of these tracks are only just getting over the quality threshold. What makes some song choices seem even more bizarre is that "An Open Mind" and "Decide" were thrown away as extra tracks on singles (I can't say b-sides anymore). I would argue that "An Open Mind" is better than ANYTHING on the album and other recent tracks such as "No Boundaries" would have been preferable to "Hoping for a miracle". But instead of bitching, I am just going to be thankful that Neil and Chris are still releasing music of such terrific quality "An Open Mind" and I won't quibble if I receive it via an album or an extra track on a single. 6/10
