Erik Hassle; Erik Hassle

It's been quite sometime since I have put up an album review on my blog, so I decided to tell you guys about an artist I discovered sometime back. Erik Hassle is a 21 year old Swedish singer and composer who released his debut album Pieces recently. Given that it's a swedish product, I'm surprised from the content. It's a simple direct pop record, nothing fancy. And frankly speaking, it works quite well for him. I'm actually love this album alot.

The tracklisting is as follows;

1. Bump In The Road
2. Hurtful
3. Don't Bring Flowers
4. Isn't It Obvious
5. The Thanks I Get
6. Wanna Be Loved
7. First Time
8. Love Me To Pieces
9. Bitter End
10. All That I Wanted Was You
11. Back To Bed
12. Make It In Time

Like I mentioned about it being a genuine pop record, there is a wide-spread pop feel to the album. Even though you do get the dance feel on some tracks and the catchy tracks are pretty much genius lyrics. My favorites are 'Hurtful', 'Isn't It Obvious', 'Wanna Be Loved', 'First Time' and 'Love Me To Pieces'. These tracks are somewhat quick paced, but what really draws me into them are the lyrics. I'm completely in awe of the lyrics, the 21 year old Erik has definitely made his mark on me as a lyricist. Simple, smooth flowing, well crafted, meaningful; that's what comes to my mind when I listen to his song. The beats are nothing to bleh about either. I'd recommend that you definitely listen to these five tracks.

'Bump In The Road' is a really good track to start of the record, after struggling nearly 5 years in the music industry this track definitely tells us that it's worth not giving up. Once again, the lyrics are meaningful and they literally self-draw a mental picture in your brain. Excellent way to start off an album.

'Don't Bring Flowers' is another cool number, and also the second single. I'm not entirely feeling this track, but it's a hit amongst my friends so I'm guessing there is something to it. It's good, but not great. 'The Thanks I Get', 'Bitter End' and 'Make It In Time' also get the same treatment from me. I feel that if he had possibly made them some more upbeat, they could have had alot more oomph in them.

'All That I Wanted' and 'Back To Bed' do absolutely nothing for me. And these tracks are the only ones that leave me disappointed big time, I feel they're alot more R&B than pop and that is why they don't seem to be making their points as much as the others.

The album was recently released in UK under the title of 'Pieces' with one track completely replaced and some of the track re-arranged. 'Hurtful' which was the first single to be released, was re-released with a new video. You can check it out here!

Copyright © Saad Khan 2009 (Karachi, Pakistan; saadkhalidkhan@gmail.com)