Toploader
At the Magic Hotel
Sony
Things get off to a rather nice start with first single “Time of My Life” and the immediately following feel-good, nice-boys pop-rock of “Cloud 9,” but it doesn’t take too long before you begin to wish it’ll all soon be over. Fact is, take these songs one by one, and they are rather likeable and catchy, in a beer-and-barbecue kind of way. But Toploader’s brand of mid-tempo ’70s radio-friendly AOR and white soul just doesn’t have the stamina to last the entire album through. Taken together, it is all too inoffensive, too forgettable and, as the album goes on and on, just too damn annoying.
Their attempts to rock out are similar in style to Elton John’s. That is, they don’t do it too convincingly, as if they’d rather sit down and play another good ole ballad for ya all. But then again, there are the sweet and hummable tracks like “Leave Me Be” and “Stupid Games,” and suddenly it’s rather hard to actually dislike them after all. Fans of Robbie Williams and Savage Garden could do worse than give this a shot. The rest of us will probably get more than our fair share of Toploader from radio.
Sony Music: http://www.sonymusic.com
