JULIAN BRANDT LOOKS AND TALENT (DON'T ALWAYS GO TOGETHER) ALBUM GRAPLUR RELEASE: NOVEMBER 11, 2009 REVIEW: DECEMBER 22, 2009

After working on it for some years we are finally treated to the first solo album from Julian Brandt. He is in no way a newcomer though, having previously played in Kamera, Bobby, The Paper Faces and Lustans Lakejer. On this album he has brought in a number of friends to assist him, and most songs are performed with a guest singer. Let’s find out how this affects the whole record.

As you might expect, this is an album filled with electronic pop songs of high quality. As with Bobby, he has a gift when comes to writing catchy songs and most of the tracks have radio potential. I do feel that this isn’t as polished as Bobby were, in fact it's a bit dirtier, which for me is a step in the right direction.

The guests are allowed different amounts of space on the tracks and I think that it works best with singers who stand out a bit from the crowd. Like in “TryToCatchMeIfYouCan” with Toril Lindqvist from Alice in Videoland where her voice alone lifts the whole song. I also really enjoyed “The Average Man” with Christer Lundberg (Universal Poplab) - a nice duet. “IkeaGirl” with Thérèse Andersson and “Rip Your Heart out” (with Johan Kinde from Lustans Lakejer) are two more examples of songs that are a bit rougher and should work on any dance floor.

However, while the amount of guests makes everything a bit schizophrenic, I still miss that little extra spark to make the whole album stand out because I tend to skip some of the tracks when I listen. But all in all this is really something to check out if you are a synthpop lover.

TOBIAS ELIASSON