Bob Sinclar

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Amazon

Any album that starts with a song based on early ‘90s dance act/cheese factory C&C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat” has already created a hole that’s going to be hard to climb out of. Alas, erstwhile superstar producer/DJ Sinclar doesn’t even try. Instead he wallows in an album’s worth of the same trite, upbeat dance/pop sentiments.

Apparently, Sinclar’s “Western dream” is a Bob Sinclar Night on American Idol, because that’s what this collection of smartly-produced, harmless cheese amounts to: Schmalzy variations on a theme. 

Ultimately, Western Dream hangs its hat on “Love Generation”, which furthers the post- “Hey Ya” trend of mixing Johnny Marr-like acoustic guitars with punchy hip-hop/techno beats. The song was a huge European hit—and Europe can keep it, seeing as it’s essentially a techno’d up version of That One Rusted Root Song; you know, the one that’s in Ice Age. And Sinclar’s lawyers can only hope The Sundays have never heard “In the Name of Love”.

Yes, you can dance to Western Dream. But with the generally misbegotten mood of today’s world, you’re going to need a lot of camp to put over these kinds of “upbeat” platitudes. Sinclar and his group of vocalists, sadly, try all-too- hard to sound sincere.

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