“A musical project of Glenn Main, Get it Right aims a new audience for AD Music with an album totally in the style of retro synth-pop”
1 Homemade Wings 3:42 2 Night of the Living Synth 4:29 3 Get it Right 3:51 4 Dream a Dream 3:23 5 No Romance 4:09 6 Run Away 4:29 7 Too Late to Say Goodbye 3:45 8 Superwish 3:33 9 Wonderful Life 4:46 AD Music – Argh2017r
(CD/DDL 36:05) (V.F.)
(Retro Synth-Pop)
I'm asking myself the same question quite often. Should I speak about it? Do I have to write about this 2nd album of the Norwegian band ARGH? Does it have its place in this vast library of EM that became Synth&Sequences? And then I said myself; why not? By respect for my readers and by respect to the AD Music label which aims at diversifying, in a wider range, the styles of its catalog, I told myself that to speak about it, if only just a little, can guide my readers towards a more sensible choice. And why this preamble? Because GET IT RIGHT, standing for the initials of Andreas Ronbeck and Glenn Henrikson, is very far from this EM which livens up the debates here and which fires the curiosity of the aficionados of the Berlin School style and of all its derivatives. We are dealing here with an album of Synth-Pop, or Future Pop that depends of, with a singer and one or two keyboard players who are apparently inspired by the Depeche Mode model or by the Norwegian pop music band A-ha. And I imagine that the fact that Glenn Main Henriksen is behind this project helped this band so that it joins the ranks of the prestigious English label and thus to get more visibility.
Who says Glenn Main and who says AD Music says quality! At this level, this album won't have no difficulty to charm the fans of the kind. But is not Depeche Mode who wants! The oscillates closer to the roots of romantic Synth-Pop and the bubblegum pink of the golden years and of MTV. The rhythms are little wild, and the percussive effects are clearly less furious than in the structures of DM. I would go more to the kind Human League, especially when the voice of Iselin Main, Glenn Main's daughter, teams up with Andreas Ronbeck on vocals on titles as No Romance and the nice ballad Run Away, of Howard Jones, Simple Minds or still Bryan Ferry in solo, in particular in Wonderful Life, to describe better the 9 titles which lengthen hardly the 37 minutes of this album. There are good moments, like the very catchy Night of the Living Synth, and many danceable titles which are built around dance beats like on David Bowie's Let's Dance if you want more reference tools. The approach remains very retro with rhythmic structures supported by beat-box percussions and very pastiches effects of the golden years of Synth-Pop. It's moreover one of weaknesses of this album. By offering a GET IT RIGHT more than seducing to the fans of the kind, the Norwegian duet (or trio?) forgets largely the innovative aspect. The sounds, the tones and the arrangements are in the heart of the 80's. It's agreeable, but more than 35 years later the kind has fairly evolved. Unless ARGH aims at the nostalgic. If it's the case, they aimed quite right! In brief; well-done Synth-Pop with tones of yesterday played with instruments of today. And it seems that the band is very good in concert with a highly inspired Glenn Main, who is quite a showman and who is surrounded by his daughter and son Nicko on keyboards.
Sylvain Lupari (June 22nd, 2017)
Available at AD Music