Love From A New Perspective
Dean Boudreau releases all emotions in roller-coaster debut album.
After many years of finding his way through the pathways of the online music community, Canadian singer/songwriter Dean Boudreau has teamed up with Juiced Up Records for his debut album titled Love Through The Looking Glass. While in the past Boudreau has worked on projects such as his first EP Lost In Paradise, these projects only equal to half of the maturity and talent presented in this new release. At the same time, Dean shows off his passion for music through his attempt to create a free flowing concept album. Unfortunately, the emotional roller-coaster that is Love Through The Looking Glass presents ups and downs in its production as well.
The album opens up with “Hotwired”, a nice non mainstream dance hit that shows an honest opening to the album. While this is a song that will never receive major airplay, it creates a division between your standard love song, and a love song with much more substance. Throughout the song Boudreau throws in lines such as “I’m not the kind of guy who does these things” to show how sincere he is about his feelings and craft.
However, the energy that is presented in the first song decreases in the second track titled “Fired Up”. This track begins with a very distracting speaking part that strays the listener away from the passion displayed in the first track. In the end, Boudreau survives this disaster by adding in a lot of vocal range, showing that this album might not be a lost cause.
These beginning tracks are followed by a very generic yet effective cover of the Collage’s hit “I’ll Be Loving You”. While this song fits into the beginning concept of the album, listeners might be asking themselves whether this song truly reflects the songwriter’s state of mind. Because of this line of questioning, both Boudreau and Juiced Up Records should have considered keeping this song a separate project, or atleast a bonus track.
The next two tracks “In Your Eyes” and “So Cold” keep the pace of the album moving, but create a stream of dialogue that is much harder to follow than what track one started with. However, the next two tracks “Not Healthy” and “At The Tone” pick up any slack that the beginning five tracks displayed. Both songs show the brilliant songwriting that Boudreau is capable of, leaving both tracks as potential club singles.
The album continues with “Lie To Me” and “Sorry (For Myself)”, two songs that are effective, yet do not present the atmosphere that is required for such strong abstract feelings. Instead of your standard dance format, listeners might expect a much more haunting sound to match the feelings of betrayal presented in the lyrics. This positioning in the album might have been the perfect opportunity for Boudreau and Juiced Up Records to add in “Hit N Run”, a song that is currently part of Dean Boudreau’s upcoming second album, What Remains. By adding in this track, listeners would not only receive the emotional breakthrough that is required this late in the album, but it would organize a lot of the feelings already expressed. Instead of jumping from feelings of confusion into feelings of loss, as expressed in the upcoming cover of the Backsreet Boys song “Incomplete”, listeners can see the acceptance process of losing a love for what it really is.
The album also includes “Solace (Until The Pain Is Gone)”, which is featured in different forms, in both tracks ten and twelve. While this track is effective, having it appear on the album twice takes away from the overall concept album idea. At this point in the album, Boudreau could have ended with both “Incomplete” and “I’ll Be Loving You”. By ending the album this way, Dean could have shown not only the gain and loss of love, but the acceptance that this person will always be a part of their memories.
Even though Love Through The Looking Glass provides a lot of bumps on its way to becoming a great concept album, Dean Boudreau gives an honest attempt at a genre that is often times underrated. At the same time, Boudreau uses style and powerful songwriting ability to show that experimental pop doesn’t need to be lifeless and dirty as many artists make it out to be.
Credits
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Jeremy Sidabras, Triple I Entertainment Group (2009). Adapted from original review : Jeremy Sidabras, Dean Boudreau Album Review Contest (2007).
For more information on this artist, visit : www.deanboudreau.com or www.myspace.com/deanboudreau.