Remember Robin Beck? If you’re over thirty, you may well do, as she had a number one it in the UK and Germany with “First Time”, a power ballad which was featured in a Coca-Cola commercial. If you’ve ever wondered what has happened to her, well she’s been plugging away in the music business steadily ever since and collaborating with many artists. One such collaboration is “Better Days”, an album by Norwegian guitarist Kjetil By, who, on his website, declares that his favourite band is Journey (this fact is deeply relevant) and who has three previous releases before this one, the first dating back to his first low-key album from 1996. This album also features Robin’s husband, James Christian, from House Of Lords, who shares production duties with Kjetil, as well as backing/harmony vocals and each track is co-written by Kjetil By and English born, Norway-based musician, Claudia Scott.
Firstly, it’s difficult to believe that this album is being released in 2014. As soon as you hit play, you’re taken back to a different era. We’re talking radio-friendly soft rock, the type that was popular in the mid-eighties. Heart, early Bon Jovi, soft, commercial era Van Halen – all of these bands come to mind (as well as Journey, of course), but it’s not necessarily in a good way. “Better Days” is all very competent and the production is certainly easy on the ear, but I have to admit that had this album been released in the decade it belongs in, I doubt that it would have been very successful then, either. It’s not that it’s a dreadful, unlistenable album, on the contrary, Beck’s vocals are very good, the guitar work is proficient and the experienced band obviously have ability but it’s all so frustratingly safe and unexciting, it makes the Meat Loaf and Alice Cooper albums of the mid-eighties sound raw and cutting edge by comparison.
There may be a vague possibility that people who like this particular niche in rock (for example, those who are a certain age and feel as if rock peaked in the eighties) may enjoy this album a lot, but I can’t see it having a wider appeal beyond those people with a very specific taste. I take no pleasure at all in stating the following, as I prefer to concentrate on the positives all music has to offer, but this album is sadly one massive eighties cliché and I have found it very difficult to derive any enjoyment from it, even on a surface level. There are songs about walking in the rain, playing with fire, autumn winds and on “Dancers” the rather familiar lines “Every breath you take/I feel every move you make” crop up. Wonder where I’ve heard that before. I can’t even pick out one solitary song as a redeeming feature, it’s just stuck so hopelessly in an era of rock that belongs firmly in the past and I just can’t get past that. It may just be my problem, but I honestly don’t think it is.
“Better Days” by Kjetil By (ft. Robin Beck) was released in February 2014 on HITMUSIC and is on sale now. For further information, visit Kjetil’s site at www.kjetilby.com.
Andy Sweeney, 13th May, 2014.
