MICHELLE DARKNESS, singer of End Of Green, has to offer one thing apart from his strange gothic optics, namely numerous dark hits, highly catchy and easy to sing along.
After the first listening session catchy tunes like My Sweet, the title song Brand New Drug or Angelsong won’t leave my memory anymore. Thereby the solo artist surprises with a real broad variability and consequently the 13 tracks do not get boring at all. Sometimes the music is influenced by a Rock’n’Roll attitude like the lyrical quite nasty Dopecrawler proves. The sentiments tighten from gloomy and dusky sluggish pieces (Forgotten Son with awesome sonorous vocals) over nearly happy rolling works (Darklandcity) to nice little ballads (Angelsong). At the end of this release I face a real surprise in form of hefty tune Hatethings, whereby Michelle gets supported by Entwine vocalist Mika Tauriainen. The modern sound contributes to the positive impression this track leaves.
In addition the strategy of some interspersed cover tracks is another brownie point. All of them are felicitous: Love Will Tear Us Apart, originally by Joy Division, gets very interesting because of the alternate singing of Michelle and guest singer Hanna Pakarinen. The best known Pet Sematery (Ramones) brings on good mood and The Sound Of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel) is enwrapped into a noble dark facet.
Brand New Drug turns out to be very easy digestible without kerbs or angles, an album with nice material offering many catchy tunes staying in memory without problems. Over and above the compositions feature a certain melancholy like End Of Green. MICHELLE DARKNESS creates wonderful music with these simple ingredients.