Ralphy's C.D. Reviews

Review date 26-02-2000: Kane - C.D. As long as you want this

Well hear it is than. The debut album of the new rock talents of Holland, Kane, whose praise I've been singing earlier in the reviews of the Billy The Kid and Anouk CD's. That praise was based upon the first 2 singles "Where do I go now" and "Damn those eyes". Therefore I had great expectations for their debut CD, entitled ''As long as you want this". I have to say that those expectations haven not been entirely fullfilled, but first let me introduce the band. The members of Kane are Dinand Woesthoff (lead vocals and guitars), Dennis van Leeuwen (guitars), Aram Kersbergen (bass), Tony Cornelissen (guitars, backing vocals) and Cyril Directie (drums). The brain behind Kane in the meaning of composer/songwriter is especially front man Dinand Woesthoff, occasionally supported by Dennis van Leeuwen. Commercially this album has already become a success in our homecountry The Netherlands, but whether it can stand on its own abroad I seriously doubt. Kane had tremendous radio and tv support here, but in other countries they will have to do it all on their own. only supported by their music on this CD.

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A comparison that has been made on occassion is the one with Pearl Jam. Although I'm not a deep admirer of that band (I like 'm, but don't love 'm) the comparison stops at the voices of Woesthoff and Eddie Vedder, there is some similarity in that and that they both play rock, but otherwise Kane isn't in the Pearl Jam league (yet). My greatest disappointment concerning this album are the lyrics. There isn't any deeper meaning in any of the 13 love songs and all over the album there is a lot of groaning and a lot of use of phrases like oh yeah, so it reminds me a bit of the Eddie Murphy joke about James Brown: 'this song needs a word here: yeah'. Perhaps they even now that the future lyrics need more work, because they didn't include the lyrics on the CD cover booklet as happens on most occassions nowadays. I'm probably too critical of this album, but that's just because I had the feeling that these guys could have done better. It reminds me a bit of the feeling I had when I heard the first Anouk-album: not bad, but not up to her/their potential. Anouk (a big supporter of Kane also) rose to that potential with her extraordinary second album and I have the feeling that Kane's music will improve also through the experiences they are making right now. That these guys can play is evident when you listen to this record and musically I cannot put my fingers on anything that is wrong and there probably isn't anything wrong at all, but my overall feeling of the album just isn't one of satisfaction. Maybe the album could have been a bit less pop and a bit more rock, but that, I believe, is the influence of the record company, to keep them accessable for the major (teenie) crowd.

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Furthermore I have great difficulty in finding favourite tracks on this CD, basically I find the all have the same style, a good style, but it's hard to differentiate between the songs. Now enough with of the criticism and focus on the positive. Kane simply play good rock music and if you like a bit of guitar in your songs as I do than you cannot dislike "As long as you want this". I already said that Woesthoff's voice resembles that of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, so that should tell you something. In another review I read that this album was the best substitute for seeing Kane perform live. I haven't had that pleasure yet, but the rumours that they wil be playing on the Pinkpop-festival this year are buzzing hard and I hope to have the opportunity then. Untill than I will have to do with this CD as the other critic said. I rate "As long as you want this" with a 6.7 .

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