Not a bad album but I don't like it as much as I used to (All Rise - Blue)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	All Rise - Blue
Date:	20/05/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good upbeat pop songs

Disadvantages: Quite a few of the tracks sound dated now to me even though they're not that old

Before they split up, I liked Blue (along with quite a few boybands in general!) and had at least two of their albums. This was their first album and I have to say that I'm not as keen on this as one of the later ones (Guilty) so there aren't many tracks that have actually made it onto my iPod. The ones that have are:

***All Rise***
This was their debut single and got a lot of radio airplay at the time. It is quite an upbeat pop song with lyrics that make references to the courtroom ("All rise"; "you're on the stand"; "the jury will decide" etc.). As far as I can tell, the solo vocals appear to be split between Simon and Lee. For me, Simon's voice is quite generic while Lee's is quite different for a boyband member. He has a good voice for ballads and other slow tracks, which is probably one reason why he doesn't feature so heavily on this type of track. I quite like this track but I got bored of it soon after it was released due to the airplay and don't enjoy listening to it so much these days.

***This Temptation***
This is another mid-tempo pop song that is quite catchy. The solo vocals here are Lee and Simon again. For me, the track is let down slightly by the backing track which sounds like it is trying a bit too hard to be disco and gets on my nerves by halfway through.

***Girl I'll Never Understand***
This is a more laid-back track than the two that I've just mentioned. Vocally, this falls to Lee mainly, who has the best voice for this type of track. I think that the other solo vocals go to Simon, whose vocals I don't enjoy as much. I wouldn't class this as a ballad even though it is quite slow.

***Back Some Day***
Lyrically, this track is one of the most heartfelt on the album. Again, the vocals are split between Lee and Simon with pretty much an even split between the two, although Lee hits the bigger notes and sounds more impressive as a result.

***Best In Me***
This is another slow track and one of my favourites on the album. Yet again, the lyrics are split between Lee and Simon but both sound smooth. The harmonies also sound good from the little that can be heard in the background, although to be honest, you can't hear too much of them as Lee can be heard over the top of the rest of the group for most of the chorus (except for one or two lines towards the end of the track). I would say that Lee has the best voice for a ballad like this as he has a nice range, so I'm glad when he takes a good chunk of the vocals on this track.

***Overall***
As I hinted at the start of this review, this isn't my favourite album from Blue as for me, they went in a more mature direction with subsequent albums and I preferred that change. This seemed a decent enough album at the time but I have to admit that I'm not really keen on many of the tracks now - hence why I've only picked out four here! There are some good pop tracks on the album that I really liked when it was first released and this includes Bounce, Fly By, Make It Happen, Back To You and Too Close as well as All Rise and This Temptation that I've already included in the review. If you're a fan of the fairly upbeat pop tunes that Blue used to release, you might well enjoy this album but a lot of the tracks sound quite dated to me now. If you like ballads, there are a couple on here, including the single If You Come Back.

Summary: I used to love this album but I'm not so keen anymore