Rock4 - Don't Break The Rhythm

Styles: Vocal Pop
Year: 2014
File: MP3@128K/s
Time: 46:25
Size: 43,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:44) 1. Don't Break This Rhythm
(4:33) 2. Vienna
(2:50) 3. One (Your Name)
(4:19) 4. Chasing Cars
(3:19) 5. When Doves Cry
(4:00) 6. Crazy In Love
(4:42) 7. Insomnia
(3:17) 8. Somewhere Only We Know
(6:14) 9. Adagio For Strings
(7:23) 10. Comfortably Numb

Rock4 is best when the group rocks out. Lucky for all of us, this happens a lot. Don't break the rhythm is decidedly new wave, keeping the beat through ballads, uptunes, and everything in between. Even the subdued reptitions of Chasing Cars sound like the lull between one dance track and the next, not like any major change of pace.
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Crazy In Love sounds like it fell onto a Yes record, the poppy percussion and downtempo stylings keeping momentum against the odds. Rock4 isn't a group of wailers; this is more of a classic rock tribute album, a more refined version of The Exboyfriends. The voices are strong, the sound is tight. The album loses a little focus during the choral bits, like the ones that flutter through Vienna, but I hear that as the siren song of the '70s pulling back against the four-on-the-floor of the '80s.
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The rock and roll lines blur completely on Comfortably Numb, when a real guitar floats into the mix. It's a little jarring, but not as much as you'd expect. After nine preceding tracks of late-night dance rock, you just sort of go with it. Speaking for myself, I was still reeling from the Samuel Barber club remix, which is not something I might have picked out but it's got a good beat, and you can totally dance to it. That said, I would have skipped the tambourine on Somewhere Only We Know.
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Rock4 should sell better to an English-speaking audience than some of the other continental groups making similar music. For one thing, the English is better. Dutch transitions a bit better than Deutsch, all other things equal. Also, the uniform sound serves as a strength. Don't break the rhythm is consistent, professional, and stays in character. If you like these songs, you'll like these songs. If you only know some of them, the rest will slot right in. It's time to rock all night long.
By Rebecca Christie https://www.rarb.org/reviews/albums/1452-dont-break-the-rhythm/
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Don't Break The Rhythm

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Rock4 - Abbey Road

Styles: Vocal Pop
Year: 2017
Time: 48:03
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 112,0 MB
Art: Front

(5:46) 1. Come Together
(3:10) 2. Something
(3:01) 3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
(3:32) 4. Oh! Darling
(2:59) 5. Octopus's Garden
(7:06) 6. I Want You (She's so Heavy)
(2:55) 7. Here Comes the Sun
(2:54) 8. Because
(4:07) 9. You Never Give Me Your Money
(2:28) 10. Sun King
(1:04) 11. Mean Mr. Mustard
(1:20) 12. Polythene Pam
(1:53) 13. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
(1:31) 14. Golden Slumbers
(1:37) 15. Carry That Weight
(2:11) 16. The End
(0:21) 17. Her Majesty

Are you excited about a new, high quality Beatles tribute album? You will probably like Rock4's Abbey Road. Are you indifferent to The Beatles yet open to a covers album if it's done well? You also will probably like this Abbey Road. But if you don't like songs by The Beatles, I'm not sure this release is compelling enough to change your mind.

For this review to make sense, you should know that I am mostly a category two person with a splash of category three, enough so that I didn't immediately realize this is a track-for-track cover of The Beatles' last four-man studio album. And I didn't really have time to catch up to the rest of the classic rock world by learning the original record inside and out, so you'll have to take my face value impressions at face value.

The opening track, Come Together, is a contender for world's best rock song, is definitely my favorite Beatles song, and is also the one track that gets an obviously less-than-conventional cover. Rock4 chose to transform it into an Enigma-style mashup with techno Gregorian chant. This was a mistake. I, personally, am exactly the target audience for a cappella techno-fied Gregorian chant. I do not want it mixed in with The Beatles. Nor do I want one of the few Beatles songs I actively like to be anything other than the rocker it is.

Further down the road (heh) things seem to straighten out, at least as much as The Beatles intended. Something is straight up and very nice for what it is. Because, an a cappella staple going back to The Nylons, does what it says on the tin and the two Sun songs are arranged with pleasing echos. Octopus's Garden, in addition to being a terrible song, is also the weirdest listen because of the way Rock4 sings the word "garden". It's just a smidge too Germanic (sorry, I know you're Dutch but there it is) to get past my ears. Otherwise, the English is just as good as the singing, which is to say really quite nice overall.

Moving on, I really like the unisons on Carry That Weight. Probably my favorite song on this disc, and one of the most charismatic. I also enjoy the duo of Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam Rock4 keeps it light and gives the latter a heavy dose of Sympathy For the Devil-style "whoo-whoo"s. I am not going to wade into The Beatles vs. Stones abyss, but a few things stand out too much to avoid.

All this is to say that Abbey Road is an ambitious project that makes good on its promise. If that appeals to you, you'll have a good time.https://www.rarb.org/reviews/albums/1682-abbey-road/

Abbey Road

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Rock4 - Back to Basic

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2022
Time: 53:05
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 122,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:59) 1. Human
(4:41) 2. Whole Lotta Love
(3:35) 3. Life on Mars?
(3:44) 4. Teardrop
(2:21) 5. Goodbye Blue Sky
(5:03) 6. Wish You Were Here
(4:00) 7. Unfinished Sympathy
(3:04) 8. Bad Guy
(3:42) 9. Feeling Good
(5:54) 10. Black Hole Sun
(4:44) 11. Land of Confusion
(5:34) 12. Moon over Bourbon Street
(2:39) 13. Blackbird

Back To Basic by the Dutch vocal band Rock4 presents a wide array of reinterpretations of mostly rock tracks, sprinkled in with an occasional non-rock selection to show off the group's impressive vocal skillset. While there's no shortage of talent in terms of the group's vocal capability, I find myself latching on to the more hard-hitting tracks, along with a few other standouts.

Rock4 has a knack for rock music. There's no getting around it, and it's easy to believe from listening to Luc Devens's showstopping range, Phillip Schröter's killer percussion, and the skills of Miklós Németh and Lucas Blommers's backing contributions. The four combine to deliver a rocking good time with both flair and style.

Some of my favorite moments on Back To Basic come when Rock4 throws caution to the wind and hits the ground running, like on Whole Lotta Love. The track has edge, due in large part to the animated and quick percussion which gives the song so much life and really takes over in the track's breakdown section. As for Luc Devens's lead, it just captivates from start to finish, knowing exactly when to offer subtlety and when to just go for it. It's all hard rock at its finest.

More of their flair, albeit in a different way, also comes through on Goodbye Blue Sky. While not hard-hitting, the vocals are more methodical in their delivery of rhythmic parts that are simply pure and graceful. The progressive rock track offers a unique balance of light and dark tones, felt beautifully in the chord execution. And the band's versatility continues with their selection of Teardrop, a somewhat trance-inducing track that pushes the creative envelope, demonstrating how well Rock4 can fill so much space with only four voices.

As Back To Basic progresses, there are a few head-scratching moments that leave me wondering about some of the group's creative decisions. For starters, while some vocal groups have been known to include instruments on their tracks, having two tracks with piano accompaniment is a bit more than my liking. Wish You Were Here and Black Hole Sun both showcase adept piano playing, but at the sacrifice of overshadowing the featured vocals. I'm not sure either track adds much to the overall tone of the album.

The inclusion of Bad Guy initially felt intriguing as it's a pulsing song with many creative avenues to explore. Ultimately, the arrangement seems thin and leaves me desiring more. Other tracks such as Life On Mars? and Human also struggle at times to maintain creative momentum or an additional gear to take the song to the next level.

There is very little vocally that is out of place on Back To Basic. I feel that greater focus on those hard-hitting and energizing rock selections, the album's strengths, is what's needed to take this project from good to stellar.By Brian Alexander https://www.rarb.org/reviews/albums/1863-back-to-basic/

Back to Basic

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