Album review: BWO - Halcyon Days

BWO are the perfect pop group. They are a credible “band” in the sense that they play their own instruments and write their own songs, the singer is one of the hottest guys in pop, they do spectacular performances with dance routines and such, they aren’t afraid to seem cheesy, gay or bizarre, and last but not least, they do brilliant euro-pop.

The whole concept “BWO” is to make easy, yet danceable and modern pop, which is easy to sing-a-long to (hence the ooh ooh’s and repetitive choruses), and that’s the main reason why they’re so big in Eastern Europe, and is why they shouldn’t try for a carrier in English-talking countries.

On “Halcyon Days” they’ve taken a step away from the synths/electric sounds that dominated their last cd “Prototype”, and taken a step into more mainstream, orchestra dominating songs. And I don’t mind that! I’m honestly enjoying this album as much as the last one, and it’s far away from being disappointing. It’s clearly divined into two “parts”, song 1-8 being 90’s influed up-tempos and ballads, while song 9-16 are 80’s sounding like on the last album. I have a feeling they will pick singles from the first eight songs, since this seem to be the new BWO-sound, but that’s a smart move by them, I think. They could always go back being more electro on a later album era, when they’ve gained a bigger audience.

'We Could Be Heroes' is an excellent ballad with an amazing melody, and if the rumours which are saying that it’s the new single are true, it’ll surely be a smash hit. 'Open Door' was one of the biggest radio hits of last year, so ballads seem to work the best in Sweden for BWO. I simply can’t wait to hear it on the radio! Personally I would’ve gone for 'Will My Arms Be Strong Enough' though, since it’s better, and has an amazing opera-intro, but I have a feeling it’ll be a single later on anyway so.

'Juggernaut' is my favourite song on the album. The only thing left do is to make a bizarre & creative music video for this, and it’s officially the best song of 2006 this far. 'Crystal Odyssey' is the heaviest electro-song BWO has done to date, reminding me of the Johan S-remixes on the last album. Despite not having the strongest of choruses, it still manages to “grab” me. 'Marrakech' is also a great electro-song with a background beat similiar to September's 'Satellites'.

Lyrically the best song is 'Haunted', which is a great space anthem with absolute nonsense like someone being his silver satellite, and coming to space paradise. But it includes the lines "look at my high-tech device - you're hypnotised" and "I got power in my rocket", which makes us think it's about something completely other than space. 'Haunted' also is the 'European Psycho' of "Halcyon Days", when not having a proper chorus. And yet again BWO proves they're such brilliant popstars they manage to make a chorus-less song sound good.

BWO - Haunted (we've gone back to yousendit temporarly since zshare kept deleting the songs, if you missed the songs from yesterday, just leave a comment and we'll work something out)

The only time they’re going wrong on this album are on ‘Hanging On The Phone’ and ‘I Keep Walking On’, in which they’re following in the steps of the weakest song on the last album, ‘Rhythm Divine’, and makes pop which sounds dated and old. They’re still both okay-sounding, though.

And don’t get me started on how brilliant ‘Obsession’ is; let’s just leave it at saying that, despite the fact that it’s a cover, it has to be a single at some point.

BUY IT FOR FUCKS SAKE!

Oh, and if this album isn’t number one in Sweden next week I’ll seriously consider giving up on the Swedish pop audience forever.

posted by Chrille @ 4/21/2006