Creye
II

It starts on a broken highway and then ends with a war of love, the second album by Swedish band Creye. This second release is cleverly and (hardly) imaginatively named II and it showcases a new singer in the band as well as a childish kind of artwork with a smudge as main feature. Inside that artwork we are given a dozen tracks with titles that either tell of a band without imagination or one that takes an ironic viewpoint to their genre, as they are Swedes I guess the former is most likely as Swedes usually lack both sense of humour and understanding of the concept of irony.

Catchy pop rock is the name of their game, all done to fit a format rather than to display the creativity of a group of songwriters. The new vocalist is decent but lacks soul, it feels like he focuses so much to try and stay in tune that he is forgetting that soul is often better than skill. This album lacks a bit of originality and while the sound is pretty excellent it also gives a sense of being overworked, it feels less creative and more made to fit a format. The playing time is pretty sensible though, and that is quite good since the album lacks a bit of variation.

II is not an album that stands out, the songs are a bit too cautious and never really takes any risks. It is such inoffensive music that you usually hear on the radio, but it is easy to like and it is less boring than some of the stuff that is churned out by the Frontiers label. And I think that it is a fine album to listen to for a while, it is especially good as background music when you need some white noise to drown other sounds or just chase away some unwanted silence, it is quite perfect for that. But it is not a memorable album that stands out compared with other similar music, and I think Creye needs to let go of the handbrake and dare to risk something if they really want to be relevant in the longer run.

You might like II if you are into the melodic rock genre and enjoy the usual stuff by Frontiers, if you fit that description it is probably a good choice to look closer at what Creye has to offer. They might not be the most impressive album ever, and they may not set the music world alight, but it is pretty catchy and you can definitely listen to II and enjoy it for a little while.

HHHHHHH