Jack L. Stroem
s/t

Mister Jack L. Stroem releases his self-titled album, a work that is said to be inspired by the likes of Rainbow, Judas Priest and Genesis. The man himself has slowly been building his name, doing shows and he has made a guest appearance on a Reinxeed album in 2012. He could have used a better-looking artwork and he really should have given the album a title, but then again presentation is one thing and the most important thing is the music and that follows a familiar pattern.

It is classic melodic rock/hardrock music with quite catchy choruses and that sort of thing, I think you know what I am describing as you probably have heard it plenty of times already. The vocals are decent, as is the production – in fact, I think decent is the word for this album, decent sound, decent vocals, decent songs, decent energy, a decent album plain and simple. Stroem hardly makes music that stand out in terms of style and quality but I think you could describe it as a fairly mature debut album.

Pretty god stuff on this album, the songs work and they can be described as fairly entertaining. I especially like the second song, a classic rocker with good energy – a good song, although not a particularly special one from a creative standpoint. And that is kind of it, nothing to complain about as it is good enough but it is an album one grows tired of fairly quickly and in the end I think that it is a fairly forgetful album despite the fact that it does nothing really wrong and that it is good. It is just lacking that little extra that all great albums need to have.

In the end I find this to be a fairly agreeable album, but perhaps not one that will make a lasting impression. A good debut but perhaps not an album that will have you playing it over and over, it will probably vanish amongst the masses of similar albums that exists out there. Sure there are seeds for a good future for Stroem but he really needs to find more of a voice of his own if he want to be noticed. I think that good but forgettable is a good way to describe this album.

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