Too Much Yang

Album Review

Perhaps due to the increasing sterility of rock records circa the early 21st century, more and more new bands are going back and rediscovering recordings of a bygone era, when bands actually (gasp!) recorded live together, and didn't rely on ProTools fiddling to correct every little bloody mistake. To a degree, Bigbang is one such band, as their music brings to mind such classic rockers as R.E.M., Tom Petty (especially evident in singer Øystein Greni's vocals), and even a dash of blues-rock thrown in for good measure. That being said, while the Scandinavian band's 2007 release, Too Much Yang, is certainly based in roots rock, it is processed through a modern, glossy production — resulting in an album that doesn't sound too far off from the likes of the Wallflowers and Fastball. What you get is a hodge-podge of tough rockers (the album-opening title track), lazy Stones-y replicas ("I Don't Wanna"), chimey guitars ("All the Time"), and a few acoustic ballads ("A Thousand Times Over"). Too Much Yang should have no problem appealing to fans of mainstream adult rock; in other words, there's nothing all that groundbreaking here.