Ralphy's C.D. Reviews

Review date 23-12-1998: Vengaboys - C.D. Greatest Hits ! part I

Non-European readers may ask: Who? Well the Vengaboys have had a few major hits in several European countries with songs like "Up & down" and "We like to Party!". The performing Vengaboys are actually 4 singing and especially dancing people: 2 boys and 2 girls(?), but the brain after their technobeats are people who call themselves Danski and DJ Delmundo. In everything they bring out to the public this group claims to be of Spanish origin, but it is rumoured that the real DJ Delmundo is a Dutch DJ and VJ named Wessel van Diepen. He probably doesn't want to be associated with the Vengaboys, because he ordinarily presents more alternative and rockier music programs on radio and t.v. Another noticeable thing about the big red letters on top of this piece is the album tittle. "Greatest Hits ! part I" suggests that this album contains the best songs from various previous CD's, while actually this is the first release for this group and I doubt if there ever will be a part II, because the sound of the Vengaboys isn't what you would call timeless.

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The music on the album can be divided into 2 separate parts. The first half contains all of their single releases( next to the above mentioned: "Parada de Tettas" and "Boom, boom, boom, boom!!") which are recognizable through their hispanic influences, next to the typical drowning technobeats. The lyrics all portray a standard sexual undertone, maybe not even an undertone. Not that I believe that there's anything wrong with sex (go visit Ralphy's Beautiful Babes Pages), but (repeated) sentences like "Boom, boom, boom, boom. I want you in my room" and "Up & down and up & down" do not only express a lack of originality, but are clearly meant to draw the attention of a teen audience. In the second half of the album the hispanic influences are gone and also most of the lyrics and only the overpowering constant drumming beat remains. Best example for this is maybe my mother's reaction. When I put the album on she recognized "We like to party!" (track 1) from t.v. and radio and said that she liked this song (her taste never was any good), about 10 minutes later she asked something like: hey, that song is pretty long, isn't it? At that time we had progressed to track 4 "Up & down", so much to the diversity of the album. If you hadn't noticed by now, I hate (no, it ain't dislike, it's hate) this type of music. Why did you buy this album, you may ask, well actually I wun it through an internet-contest, but I don't really know what to do with it (I gave it to a cousin in the meantime). Not to crash the thing all together there's actually one song on the album, that could maybe compair to the work of real techno-stars like Faithless and especially Jean-Michel Jarre. It the longest track on the album called "Paradise...". It proves to me again that techno can also be smooth and doesn't have to be made with overwhelming beats, but it can't save the album. I rate the Vengaboys (CD) with an 2.5 .

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