| CD REVIEW The Poodles |
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Band : The Poodles Oh my, seems like I gave you folks some wrongful info back in the days when I reviewed this Swedish quartet’s debut album Metal Will Stand Tall (posted 25/01/2007, it still makes a good reading as to the reasons for this band’s existence). Ya see, the band’s foundation went about quite differently from what I portrayed. It all started in earliest 2006 when Jakob Samuel was asked to sing the song “Night Of Passion” (written by Matti Alfonzetti, Johan Lyander and Robert Olausson, with lyrics by one Sonja Aldén) at Melodifestivalen (the Swedish pre-selections for the European Song Contest). Well, Jakob loved the song, and therefore went along with the plan, inviting drummer Christian Lundqvist to join him on the recording session of the track. To possibly perform it as a band duing the Eurosong Festival in Greece later that year, guitarist Pontus Norgren and bassist Pontus Egberg joined them, to form a band called The Poodles. At Melodifestivalen (where they were joined by the famed Mats Levén as backing vocalist)the band eventually made it to the 4th place, and shortly after (in May 2006, that is) The Poodles released their Alfonzetti/ Lyander produced debut album Metal Will Stand Tall (in Scandinavia alone at that time). Later in 2006 they got a deal with AFM Records who issued the album throughout Europe in January 2007! Thus far, the storry stands corrected. Meanwhile the very prolific team that makes out this band already had started making new songs (they apparently had no less than 35 to choose from at the time they went in to record), and in September 2007 AFM released the band’s sophomore album The Sweet Trade (again produced by Alfonzetti & Lyander). In addition to the 31 European countries, the album was also released in Russia, and Japan. By then however, relations between ourselves and their Dutch distributor had gone awry for some obscure reason, and we weren’t even sent the album for review…and that in spite of the album’s international success! The album’s 2nd single “Sweet Trade” went on to sell Platinum twice (still the highest score for the band). The Fall 2007 European tour the band did as support to Gotthard was cheered by fans and business associates alike, and laid the groundwork for an upcoming headliner tour. In early 2008 the band again participated to Melodifestivalen, this time in a collaboration with the well-known (at least in Sweden, where he’s a multi-platinum selling artist) E-Type, and the ensuing “Line Of Fire” single got to Gold status. Next up was the band’s sold-out 17-date headliner trek through Europe (with suport act Jaded Heart), which saw several dates moved to bigger venues due to the public’s interest in the band. On their return home, the band found an invitation to record and perform the Official Swedish National Anthem for the upcoming Olympic Games at Beijing in August 2008. Released on July 15, the single “Raise The Banner” eventually reached the #1 spot in the Swedish singles charts in August, already having gotten Gold status shortly after release. In May, Norgren had decided to leave the band. Undaunted, the remaining trio immediately contacted Henrik Bergqvist. Back in 2006, it was he whom had been considered for the part of guitarist at first, but then he was unavailable, stuck in the Mexican rain forest among the Mayan indians. He made his live debut with the band on June 6, the starting date of the biggest Swedish Summer tour ever undertaken by any band, playing 30 shows in a little over 2 months, and putting in some festival appearances elsewhere in Europe during that same time. Meanwhile, the band had also started up their own label Rosehip Alley Records to protect their interests as recording artists. The recordings for the new album, produced this time by Mats Valentin, were started in the Fall of 2008, and the album was released in Scandinavia just before the Summer (the album went up to #6 in the Swedish charts in the first week of June, but the peopple in Gothenburg felt that wasn’t good enough, listing the album at #1 in their own Gothenburg Chart) with a distribution throu major label Universal. Soon after, the band signed a deal with Blistering Records for distribution of the album outside their own area! To date, singles for the songs “One Out Of Ten” (a nice semi-ballad with piano and orchestral keyboards and the necessary acoustic guitars, strengthened with heavier passages) and “I Rule The Night” (wacky Oriental-ish intro, but the song is more up-tempo and partially straight-forward in its Rock/Metal approach) were already released! Persoonally, I would’ve gone for album opener “Too Much Of Everything”…with its specific mood of orchestrated keyboards and whaling guitars, this would’ve been an ideal title track on a Bond movie’s soundtrack, I tells ya (a calmer track, titled “Sweet Enemy” gets the same assessment from yours truly – gees man, that wonderful high-pitched voice!)! Anyway, if you’ve already come in contact with these Swedes through one of their previous albums, and liked the music, you can buy this new album without hesitating. If you hadn’t heard the band’s music yet, or need convincing, surf to myspace.com/thepoodles, where you’ll not only find samples of songs off the first 2 albums, and of “Raise The Banner”, but also full-length versions of the above mentioned singles. Great album, but not to the point for me to add Clash Of the Elements to my year-lists! Feel free to act differently!!! 93/100 Tony. |