Saturday 29 December 2012

Сергей Лазарев (Sergey Lazarev) - Lazarev. : Album pReview


The 1st week of December 2012 gave us an early X'mas gift: Sergey Lazarev's 4th studio album!
Simply titled Лазарев. (Lazarev.) , the album offered 14 songs; 10 of them in English 1 in French and the rest in the singer's native Russian language. Electronic Dance-pop is the obvious overall genre with just a few down-tempo numbers to break the fast momentum.


The album blazes at the start brought to you by the "Oooh hooh"-dance-quadruplet (Make You Say, Take It Off, Stumblin', Under The Moon) with their identical chord changes, word repetitions on the choruses and the modified howlings on each song. Except for the album opener produced by L.A-based THE AUTOMATIKS, tracks 2, 3 & 4 were helmed by Swedish men Jonas Saeed (a former Consoul boyband member) and  Pontus Söderqvist (who had worked with Ace Of Base & Nicole Scherzinger); largely explaining the uniformity of the sound structure. The subdued mid-tempo pop gem Нереальная Любовь (Unreal Love) slows the pace down a bit only to be accelerated once more with the topnotch club number I Need Love done by Dutch DJ Sander Jongerius. Two more fast-beat tracks follow; the urban-ised Moscow To California and the cheesily-dire 7 Wonders. The second down-tempo interjection then takes place as the 90's-rock-ballad Storm brings back fond memories of SMASH!!. Bringing the house down as the tenth song, Keep Your Mouth Shut is the second contribution by THE AUTOMATIKS in this album. The single-worthy song is a raving triumph on the dancefloor in the same way Danny Saucedo's All In My Head impressed listeners in September. A couple of sublime mid-tempo pop ballads, Warrior and Слезы В Моём Сердце (Tears In My Heart) proceed next before the album wraps up with the cool Gilles Luka-produced pieces, Отпускаю (Let Go) and Desire. As always, Sergey's vocals never failed to electrify; hitting high notes and impressing on falsettoes. If not for the over use of "oooh hoooh" howlings, the album is exemplary enough to be the party companion of choice to your year-end countdwon.


Preview the album



The Full Tracklist of Лазарев. :
  1. Make You Say
  2. Take It Off
  3. Stumblin'
  4. Under The Moon
  5. Нереальная Любовь
  6. I Need Love
  7. Moscow To California (with DJ M.E.G.) (featuring Тимати)
  8. 7 Wonders
  9. Storm
  10. Keep Your Mouth Shut
  11. Warrior
  12. Слёзы В Моём Сердце
  13. Отпускаю
  14. Desire (featuring Gilles Luka)
  15. Take It Off (Vengerov Remix)


The verdict on music:       Exemplary.    (9/10)




THE OFFICIAL SINGLES :






The first single off the album Moscow To California was released in May 2012. It was a brilliant urban-dance collaboration with producer DJ Meg and Timati who also appeared on Sergey's 2008 single Lazerboy. The video had a simple long-distance lovers theme with Sergey's supposed love interest left in Moscow while he and the boys party in California. 

Watch the video for Sergey Lazarev - Moscow To California :








In July 2012, the second single Take It Off became available for download. Both co-written and produced by Jonas Saeed (Ola Svensson's Rain & Ace Of Base's All For You)  and Pontus Söderqvist responsible for  Joanna Zimmer's I Believe and No Angel's Still In Love With You, the song has a strong hook and memorable chorus for a sure-fire dance-club hit.  Despite the Swedish powerhouse to fuel the single for success, the much-anticipated video never went past post-production thus preventing the song to really take off. Sergey only has his sexy promo photos to thank for the limited hype it generated. 

Watch the making-of video for Sergey Lazarev - Take It Off :


























To pre-empt the album's release, a 3rd single came out in October 2012. The Russian language song  Нереальная Любовь (Unreal Love) was contributed by electro-house producer Micheal Yousher (Inna Dranovskaya's Do You Wanna). The mid-tempo pop number offered a laid-back treatment as opposed to the first two upbeat singles.  A video thankfully paired the song and featured Sergey as a jilted groom-to-be. 

Watch the video for Sergey Lazarev - Нереальная Любовь (Unreal Love) :








*** Special Thanks to Sergey Lazarev U.S.A. for the producer credits taken from the album's notes.

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