Brad Oberhofer has an instantaneous charisma that draws and compells you from the moment you hear the orchestral track “Chronovision” to his first breath that kicks off “Nevena.” Suddenly you find yourself in a new wave, synth, and eerie orchestral number that is a testament to the magnificence that this album has to offer.
The tracks on this album have a common theme but each is crafted with incredible dexterity. Being that Oberhofer travelled the world to get the inspiration for this album we can see why each song sounds like he put his blood, sweat, and tears into it.
The common theme on this album centers around love, love lost, and love wanted. Most people can probably relate to songs like “Someone Take Me Home”, in which Oberhofer angst-fully sings “Who’s gonna love you for the rest of your life? Who’s gonna love you till the day that you die?” And equally as profound, we have “Memory Remains” (see below), which sounds like an homage to the Killers but sticks out as one of the more catchier tracks.
Then we come to easily the most epic track on this album “Ballroom Floor.” The song offers a slow, pounding rhythm, with machine gun drum bits, an orchestra looming in the background and a passion-filled vocal. If you’re not hooked after this, you haven’t listened carefully enough.
“White Horse, Black River” is a metaphor-filled garage rocker that stomps all around the place and is undeniably one of the catchier and fun tracks on the album. “I know there’s an answer that grows like a cancer, alongside each lie that leaves her lips” protests Oberhofer on “Me 4 Me”, a track that almost sounds delightfully carnival-like at times.
If you’re going to purchase music this year, make this one of the albums you purchase. Its fun, its insightful, its catchy, its danceable, its cry-able, etc. Simply put; it’s everything…get it.