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Bob Sinclar

Western Dream

(Tommy Boy; US: 25 Jul 2006; UK: 10 Jul 2006)

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.

Rating:

John Bergstrom has been writing various reviews and features for PopMatters since 2004. He has been a music fanatic at least since he and a couple friends put together The Rock Group Dictionary in third grade (although he now admits that giving Pat Benatar the title of "first good female rocker" was probably a mistake). He has done freelance writing for Trouser Pressonline, Milwaukee's Shepherd Express, and the late Milk magazine and website. He currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife and two kids, both of whom are very good dancers.


Tagged as: bob sinclar
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Bob Sinclar -- Love Generation
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