Hoping to capitalize on the international exposure achieved by his third-place position at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, Swedish pinup
Eric Saade's second album, confusingly titled,
Saade, Vol. 1, is another tour de force in the kind of anthemic schlager-pop that his homeland has become famous for. Produced by Jason Gill (
Darin,
Anna Vissi), the follow-up to 2010's
Masquerade makes a few concessions to both the ubiquitous urban-electro sound dominating the charts worldwide, such as the
Taio Cruz-esque collaboration with Swedish-Brazilian rapper
J-Son ("Hearts in the Air"), and the equally prevalent
Ryan Tedder-style clattering R&B ballad ("Someone New"), but elsewhere it's business as usual, as the former
What's Up boy band member's pure pop vocals glide over a never-ending array of bubbling synths, pulsing beats, and euphoric choruses. Unfortunately, there's nothing here that quite matches his gloriously uplifting Eurovision entry, "Popular" (his country's highest placing since 1999), with only the
Robyn-esque melancholy of "Me and My Radio" and the vocodered robotic disco-pop of "Made of Pop" standing out from the crowd of rather forgettable Europop numbers. Indeed, while the sub-
Britney efforts "Timeless," "Killed by a Cop," and "Big Love" may be perfectly serviceable within the confines of a dancefloor, they're just too samey and nondescript to be considered as anything other than filler, while the lyrics range from the banal ("Love is filling up the air") to the downright laughable ("I don't think you'll ever be sheriff").
Vol. 1 may be a consistently feel-good listen, but by sticking rigidly to the the tried-and-tested schlager-pop formula, it doesn't come close to backing up
Saade's rather lofty "European prince of pop" claims. ~ Jon O'Brien