Bernhoft –
Islander (Big Picnic Records)
CD/DL
Out Now
Norwegian vocalist Bernhoft
releases his new album.
It’s easy to see the appeal of
Jarle Bernhoft. His mix of soul and funk
is easy on the ear, and Islander contains some nice tracks, but it’s all too
safe with nothing ground breaking.
In his native Norway he’s a big
star with number 1 albums and voted Best Artist and Male Artist of the Year at their
version of the Grammys. He’s had over
seven million YouTube views. In America
he’s recently appeared on the Ellen and Conan shows, they seem to like him too
and the US audience is probably tuned for him even though they insist on including
him into today’s faux interpretation of R ‘n’ B.
On Islander, his third album, he
breezes through eleven tracks. Make no
mistake he’s good, decent enough vocals and catchy songs from the Nordic
multi-instrumentalist. He’s clearly been
influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder and even Sly Stone and he’s not afraid
to let us know.
Opening track Come Around With Me
starts the album with an instantly melodious number. Shades of Terence Trent D’arby and a pattern
emerging – history. Whilst Bernhoft is
clearly a talented guy, it is terribly dated even with modern effects and
occasional blips and bleeps. New single
Wind You Up and it dares to be potential different with his attempt at
beatboxing (yes, remember that?) and a near acapella track with handclaps, deep
backing voices and funky guitar.
A duet with Jill Scott on No Us,
No Them is again uncomplicated and far from earth shattering. It’s a shame, as for a man with such a great
voice and able to write such catchy tracks could really stretch himself if he
wanted to and come up with something slightly more adventurous. The sound of Islander is clearly 60s and 70s
inspired.
Perhaps the most enjoyable tracks Arsy
Skit and Chale Skit are live jams of no more than two minutes between
them. They show a human side and a lot
of fun. Perhaps developing these into
full length tracks would have been a good idea, and is a trick missed.
There’s very clearly an audience for
this sort of stuff and it’s easy to predict who that audience is. Penultimate track EISWALK again shows some
originality but it’s all lost again on closing track I Believe In All Things
You Don’t, a ballad of uninspiring content and blandness.
I wanted so much to like this album, if
only for Bernhoft’s wicked haircut, but alas, a nicely coiffured Mohican does
not a great album make.
7.5/10
Links
Published on Louder Than War 25/06/14 - here
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