You can hear it when pop music is great. It isn’t overly repetitive. It has great melodies (Loving You), some very cool grooves (Diamonds) and sound that is flawless. ABBA, Duran Duran and Daft Punk are probably the best examples we’ve had in the last few decades. Say what you want about the “Let’s Dance” album, you can’t deny it’s a close to perfect pop album, by a skilled songwriter, David Bowie. 30 years later, it still sounds great. You just cannot resist great pop songs.

The Californian DJ, born 26 years ago under the name Daniel Goldstein targets to reach that category with his Lane 8 project. His first album “Rise” came out June 17 is a beautifully crafted house pop opus.

Lane 8 gets help from very interesting and varied singers. Solomon Grey brings soulful vocals à la Pharrell Williams or Philip Bailey on one of the best tracks, Diamonds. Lulu James had opened things up with a Kelis-feel on Loving You. There is something that reminds me of lounge acts like Morcheeba throughout this album, as the groove takes you by the hips and moves your body.

Instrumentals on “Rise” are a bit less interesting as they lack originality. Klara has an ok groove but its melody is thiner. Cosi is a in darker mood, with thicker dubstep bass but isn’t as catchy as some other Lane8 songs. Many of the “Rise” songs could be perfect fits in Spotify playlists under themes like “Groovy cocktail”, “Dance With Eyes Closed” or “Main Street’s Newest Trendy Cocktail Bar”. They’d fit right into these moods.

LANE 8
Rise
(Anjunadeep Records, 2015)

-Genre: moody pop / house

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About The Author

Mélomane invétéré plongeant dans tous les genres et époques, Nicolas Pelletier a publié 6 000 critiques de disques et concerts depuis 1991, dont 1100 chez emoragei magazine et 600 sur enMusique.ca, dont il a également été le rédacteur en chef de 2009 à 2014. Il publie "Les perles rares et grands crus de la musique" en 2013, lance le site RREVERB en 2014, et devient stratège numérique des radios de Bell Média en 2015, participant au lancement de la marque iHeartRadio au Canada en 2016. Il dirige maintenant la stratégie numérique d'ICI Musique, la radio musicale de Radio-Canada.