Favourite Songs:

Jean Paul Amour, Breaker Of The Heart, D-Castle



An interesting debut album. My opinions about this release have already changed a few times. The variation of the material is quite huge within the album. There's hints of pop, powerpop, proge, kick-ass rock, scorpions(!) and whatever else. So All Stars haven't set any boundaries to themselves. To a narrow-minded popster (like me) who is in love with a bit more traditional way of album-making, this album do seem slightly inconsistent at times. Fortunately all are not as simple pop freaks as I am and are therefore able to appreciate this album which is not so easy to chew than most of the pop albums.

Let's start with the good things. 'Jean Paul Amour' is one of my favourite songs of this spring. This melodic power pop piece is mighty excellent and I would sure like to hear more songs from Arttu Haapalainen. 'Turbonegro' on the ep was fabulous and that song about winona that was the encore on their gig at Jyväskylä sounded really good too. So Arttu. We want more songs like these. The rest of the songs were written by mr. Ala-Kokko whose a really good songwriter at his best. It probably aint no surprise to anyone that my fave songs are the poppy ones like 'Breaker Of The Heart'. I'm eagerly waiting when I'm able to use the opening line 'It wasn't me, I was at home listening to All Stars'. Also Tuneful 'D-Castle', mellow 'Better Alone', rockin' 'Critical Mass' and that scorpions rip-off 'Happy As A Man Can Be' are all excellent.

Only problem is that there are also songs that I'm not very fond of. For example 'Let's Have A Party' tries to rock, but ends up sounding rather annoying to me. Also the moodier/dreamier (and proge-ish too) pieces like 'Bid Dreams On The White Clouds' or 10-minute long 'Premiere' don't really appeal to me.

if I could cut this into a six-song ep, I would consider giving the full five hearts, but now I'll go with the following:



All Stars Website


Written 14.05.2003