Review Takida - The Burning Heart 2011

I had no intention to review this album as the label had not sent us any promo copy but when I noticed in the daily paper I read that the band had reported a review to the police I just had to write about it and the album that triggered this. I have read the review and the reviewer wrote about sharpening razorblades and as an ending asked himself how long the punishment for first degree murder was in Sweden. The penalty is a minimum of ten years, maybe not worth it to punish someone for bad music. The thing is though they want the reviewer to be charged which is not possible in the first place as it is the responsible publisher that is to be held on charges in that case and in the review there is nothing that can be considered a threat or slander which is what they reported the reviewer for.

I do think that reporting someone to the police for a review is plain stupid, I mean they are public figures making music for a public, they just have to take whatever opinions people have of them no matter what they are. If they cannot take critique they should stop making music, my work is public as well and I have received some bad critique on mail or some have written on their social medias and so on and I am sure there are stuff I have not seen as I don’t visit the social medias but that’s alright as I make my work public and so do they. No matter what they themselves think, as long as there is no crime like slander or maybe a real scary threat in there it is just plain stupid to report it and makes them seem like whiny little kids who cannot take a bad word from anyone. I have spoken to the band myself and we have an interview at this site in Swedish only though, but at that time they said they were paying no attention to the reviews and why should they as they are really successful here in Sweden and top the charts and everything. I don’t know much of their status abroad but I really doubt that they can cut it with what they have done but I said that back in 2003 as well and then they became successful here in Sweden so why not. So to the thing they say about not paying attention, yeah right, then why report it and then why complain when a reporter for a paper say that they make fools of themselves with that. Honestly it peaked my attention so maybe it was a publicity stunt which I really hope it was because in person they are nice guys, at least they were when I spoke to them then. Another thing they should think about is that the freedom of speech and Freedom of information legislation are very strongly guarded by the Swedish constitution and said review is nowhere near to warrant any exceptions.

The Burning Heart which is the album in question is the fourth album by Takida and it follows along the line of what the band have done before, a sort of grunge inspired pop-rock kind of music that sometimes dips into the heavier metal regions but mainly stays in a radio friendly pop-rock sound. This album might be a little grander than the ones before but it is still the same band and same kind of music as it was when I heard them back in 2003. The production i adequate but a little tame in some parts as some of the songs would have benefitted from a little more “punch”. The sound as a whole is alright though and the album has twelve tracks and will take you 46 minutes to play.

The review that upset the band so much took a real swing at the singer saying he sounded like he desperately needed a shit and he at times threw in a touch of Down’s Syndrome where the latter seems to have annoyed many for some ununderstandable reason, I don’t think cancer would effect the voice unless it was in the throat but writing throwing in a bit of throat cancer would not ring as well as down’s syndrome. The review itself is not particularly good but you cannot charge anyone with poor writing, not according to the laws we have today at least (fortunately). I think the shit thing is actually quite accurate though but to be true the song is a real weak part for Takida as singer Robert does not posses any kind of authority in his voice which leads to the songs feeling weak and daft. He is to be fair not the only weakness though, even if he is the biggest, the songs are just overall dull and predictable. It feels like they just have recycled old songs and changed a bit here and there and changed the lyrics, and on top of that there is no variation whatsoever in the songs and it feels like you constantly listen to the same song over and over again which is as much fun as being drowned in a pool of salt water. This reviewer also said that Takida’s music is so poor that it might trigger someone to kill and that he was sharpening razorblades which is where it later leads to the question of punishment for murder. To be fair to the reviewer though no threat has been spoken in the review and Robert of Takida said in the daily paper I read that he didn’t feel threatened by it which actually makes the threat part of his report useless as you have to fear for you life or health for a threat to be deemed illegal according to Swedish law.

As I said, I think the review was poor as it had no explanation about how the band sound and it was mainly a bashing of the band from start to finish, but at the same time I agree with the final assessment that it is a poor album, one of the worst I have heard in 2011 to be honest. At the same time if I was in the band I would not care as the album debuted on #2 on the Swedish album charts and the band makes money from their music and they are very popular with its fans which seem to like music without identity and soul, but taste in music is a personal thing and fortunately not all are alike and if they feel hurt by a review, why not just count some money from sales or look at the charts, I am sure it will feel better. So even if they are whiny little kids and says things they don’t really mean, they still manage to make music that people buy so congratulations Takida to another successful album.

HHHHHHH

Takida The Burning Heart

Takida
The Burning Heart