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Everyone who was genuinely involved with ‘music’
was pleasantly surprised when Peter Evrard won Idool 2003. The
question really wasn’t: “How can a guy like Peter even win such a
competition?” but, actually, “Can he sell CDs?” That was the only
question the record company asked itself. Apparently, Peter didn’t
sell enough CDs so now he’s bringing out his own CD himself and is
assigning the distribution work over to his former record company.
We’re not really interested in the sales, but rather the music. Is
this CD worth buying or not?
There was a lot of surrendering to commercial
importance on ‘Rhubarb’, but you can imagine that this is much less
the case with ‘Radio Honolulu’. Just to be clear, ‘Rhubarb’ was a
good CD but didn’t really seem to be Peter’s thing. What about
‘Radio Honolulu’?
After a silly jingle (Radio Honolulu), the album
starts with a Grunge track. We knew that Peter was a big fan of
Nirvana and this first song makes it clear. The next song is also a
Nirvana type song and it’s definitely not the last. I’m happy to
say that the acoustic songs make a pleasant interchange with the
violent Grunge. The latest single, “Deaf, Dumb, Blind” has neo-punk
influences like we find in Offspring. There are traces of Metallica
and Nickleback throughout the album, but, starting from the ninth
song, you’ll also find some tones of Thrash. Strangely enough, it’s
only from that point that the album really starts to become
interesting. The best songs are, without a doubt, “Leap of Faith”,
“Mud”, and “Avalanche”. These songs are filled with various
influences without getting buried in senseless noise. The Thrash
influences make the real difference. You can even find hints of
Pain of Salvation in “Avalanche”. “Let Me Take You through the
Night” is in an acoustic version which is a pity because I thought
I’d be getting the electric version. The album ends in the same way
that it began, with references to Honolulu, in the form of ocean
waves. As far as the CD cover is concerned, it is a definite
contender for the most horrible and uninspiring cover for 2005.
All in all, there are too few songs in the same calibre as “Leap of
Faith”, “Mud” and “Avalanche”. But still, you can say that ‘Radio
Honolulu’ is much more Peter’s CD than was ‘Rhubarb’. In spite of
the potential, there is really too little balance and, on the whole,
‘Rhubarb’ was actually a bit better. But that doesn’t take away
from the fact that there are some super songs on ‘Radio Honolulu’.
But will these songs sell the album? I doubt it. |
