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CJ Palmer – A New Swedish Band Worth Checking Out
I first got a taste of CJ Palmer’s music on MySpace.com where the band out of nowhere appeared in my friend request list. Curiosity lead me to check out the band’s MySpace page and after hearing the four songs they had available to listen to, I quickly approved the friend request, the first unsolicited friend request I have ever approved from someone I didn’t already know. I then sent them a message that I liked the songs they had and that I would definitely like to hear their album once it got released.
Well the time is finally here and the debut album by CJ Palmer is now available. The album entitled, “Everything That Shines” was released on May 2, 2007 in Sweden on Silver Road Records. “Everything That Shines” is the first album to be released on this independent Swedish label.
When the album arrived, I was immediately impressed by the really high quality look of the album, which you don’t often find on debut albums. A CD featuring a full color silk screen printing encased in a jewel case with 16 page full color booklet and a tray liner printed on ultra high glossy paper complete with all song lyrics and lots of great photographs. The look is very slick and well produced reminding me of the look that Roxette’s albums have had in Sweden since 1999’s “Have A Nice Day” got released. It’s refreshing to see a debut album with this attention to detail on the packaging.
Quickly getting the album into my computer to upload it to my iPod, I was eager to do what I like to do with all new albums I’m eagerly anticipating, and that’s enjoy them on a road test. There’s nothing quite like enjoying new music racing down the California highways in the sunshine. And “Everything That Shines” is a perfect companion for the road. The album consists of 12 songs and runs about 40 minutes in length, all of which is fun to listen to.
Songs that immediately stood out as favorites earning 5 stars on my iPod ratings were “34”, “She’s Telling The Truth”, “Masterplan” and “A Jerk Like You” with the rest of the album coming in highly marked at 4 stars, so I’m going to be hearing a lot of the album whether I’m choosing to directly listen to it or have the songs randomly come up on my playlist that draws songs from those rated with 4 and 5 star ratings.
The songs on the album are all written by CJ Palmer (except for “She’s Telling The Truth” which is a co-written by CJ and Joakim Törnqvist) and sung by CJ on the album. The rest of the band consists of Patric Skog on guitars, Andreas Westman on bass, and Povel Ohlsson on drums and percussion. The sound of the band is a bit like Per Gessle’s solo works or a slightly more guitar heavy sounding Roxette (most similar to the sound of Roxette’s “Crash! Boom! Bang!” album) which helps make CJ Palmer’s album feel right at home in my collection and further proof to me that Sweden is home to some of the best music on the planet.
The album consists of mostly upbeat rock tunes with a couple of slower songs to vary the pace. The slower songs are “Always”, “It’s All Over”, “All In All”, and “Purple Blinders” which add nice variety to the more rock tunes that fill out the rest of the album. These slower songs are evenly spaced out so they add nice contrast at appropriate times to enjoy them.
I highly recommend checking out CJ Palmer and consider adding this album to your collection. To sample the songs, check out their
Myspace page at
http://www.myspace.com/cjpalmertheband or visit their webpage at
http://www.cj-palmer.com and look for the samples on the media page. The CJ Palmer website also offers the opportunity to view a video for the song “34” as well as the opportunity to download the song on the downloads page.
To buy the album, there are several options, including
http://www.swedishmusicshop.com,
http://www.skivhugget.com,
http://www.megastore.se (all of which have English language stores for those challenged at ordering in Swedish). And for those in the European Union only, you can also add
http://www.cdon.com to your list of sites to buy the album.
Ryan |
