If you based your music choices on the cover, this one would lead you to expect some kind of world music/trance/rock combination, with female vocals. I popped it in, and settled back, ready to enjoy.
What I got was something I can only call ‘world pop.’ Turns out (ah, *now* I read the liner notes) that this is exactly what the founder, Scott Stephens, was hoping to create. Now, I’m not a fan of pop, but there is a slice I enjoy. (Ms. Aguilera has an incredible voice wasted on pop, for example, and Shakira is incredible.) The record is well produced and the quality of musicianship is impressive. The music is mainly upbeat with a regular shot of Indian drums and sitar. Each track is a perfect pop song, structurally faultless and not at all unpleasant.
I did not enjoy Liquid Blue. With lyrics like: Show me love, for the people in need/ You got to show me love, and a higher creed, sung by an Aguilera clone (but not as good, just as over-produced), I was a bit ill. This is what World Music sounds like when done by morally correct American pop music.
~ review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Artist: Liquid Blue
Deep Blue Records, 2004
www.liquid-blue.com
