Sand (studio album)
by Balthazar

From Mercury 03/25/2021 17:38

(As the genre descriptors indicate, this is indeed a chiseled, smooth, beautifully produced and sophisticated pop album. There is a shadowy vibe here that I like. For my tastes, it may be a bit too clean and spotless. Yet, it is a nice nocturnal, sensual sophisti-pop album.)

This album sounds like a 2am dance with that special someone. No one can know of this fling. But as you dance, in the shadows and far away from all possible prying eyes, you start wondering if this secrecy is worth it.

The sounds here are smooth, dark, sensual, and all the sounds add up to a complete album experience that gets you in a particular oh so cool vibe. The rhythms are lively, the female back up singers consistently come in and steal the show, the bass lines are clean and, in their own way, someone groovy if not funky, the strings are dripping with atmosphere, the saxophones do the same. The vocals are consistently sensual and add to the mood of the album.

From listening to this album a few times after having never heard any prior Balthazar albums, its clear to me these musicians know their business. Every aspect of the music and production is calibrated to create these detailed and rich sophisti-pop songs. From what I have read about their earlier music it seems they were a bit more Indie ROCK, a bit more dirty, in the past. So, if that is true, and I will go and listen some and verify, then this is indeed a massive change. There is very little rock aggression or attitude here. The entire album is set to 11 on smoothness, mystery, and slyly romantic 80s pop. It works, just not really where my head is or where my tastes are, so it never really moved me or impressed in any major way.