Band : Valentine
Album title : Androgenius
Label : Valentine Records
Distributor : Suburban - Bertus
Release Date : 21/05/2009
Release : CD

After spending years in relative silence, Robby Valentine is back at the music frontline.  After 5 albums that were only released in Japan, this new album is only available through his own website.  for the diehard fans of vinyl albums, a limited release on 180grs yellow vinly will be available on the Tonefloat lable from Rotterdam.

In this latest effort Robby is joined by some top musicians.  To name but just a few: Liselotte 'Lilo' Hegt (Dial, Ayreon) on bass, André Borgman (After Forever) on drums.

For those of  you who kept on following Robby, and purchased the Japan only releases, expect no much real new work.  This is more or less a compilation of his favourite songs taken from those releases, which were put on Cd1, joined by newly recorded versions of classics - including of course the hit single "Over And Over Again", and some special bonustracks.

Musically this is nothing new.  Robby keeps performing in his own way, with some catchy songs; sometimes real powerful as far as the Japanese tracks are concerned, a real surprise to me since I hadn't been following his career for quite some years, sometimes softer as on his older songs. All the songs sound great, but, as before, I personally think that vocalwise he is somewhat hampered by the range of his voice.  This does not mean I think he can't sing, on the contrary.  Luckily he seems to have gotten this message himself, and does not try to overstretch his voice.

78/100

Erik Morren.