COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED. Congratulations to the
winners: Karyn Searle, Deb McNabb, Stacey Wilmshurst,
Natalie
Moffat and Logan McPherson
Have you ever sat down at your job feeling rather redundant? Please
don't get me wrong, this is not the rant of a disgruntled TVNZ
employee, I quite like it here.
This is more the musings of a music reviewer in New Zealand faced with the task of reviewing Shihad's latest record.
In case you didn't realise, Shihad are already quite well known to the New Zealand public, with a great deal of you having already formed you own opinions of this band at one point during their 20 year career.
The mere fact that this record has already gone gold as I am typing up this review serves to dictate that I don't have much of a chance to shape public opinion here.
What I can do is attempt to have a look at where this album is coming from so I guess I'll just go with that. It would seem that ever since the post 9/11 USA crowd got their Jihads and their Shihad's confused, music critics and fans alike have all been obsessed with Shihad's assault on the United States' music market.
I'm not prepared to attempt to read the minds of four band members at once but I can say from listening to this record that the sound and content would be fit for an attempt at world domination.
The subject matter is by and large very accessible to a wide audience; the urges to go with rampant kiwiana have been resisted, despite the nice timing of the release to coincide with New Zealand Music Month, surely the next best option to Christmas around these parts.
Nor has the boat been rocked in the fashion that it was capsized with La La Land or My Mind's Sedate. The sound itself follows the safe nature of the lyrical content to form what would have to be the most radio friendly offering from the lads to date.
Despite not being as hard or as tough as some previous Shihad offerings, Beautiful Machine still has plenty to offer the established fan. Were it not for the fact that it had been released at the beginning of winter I would be dubbing this the perfect complement to the Kiwi Barbeque.
Indeed this album is loaded with songs that are just begging to be sung along to so I'd make sure you give it a listen before you catch Shihad on their upcoming tour in promotion of this very album. Just make sure you don't play it in front of your more cringe worthy karaoke buddies.
