Album Review: Chez Kane - Powerzone

I don't care how often it comes up, I will continue to be baffled by the obsession culture has with the 80s. Whether we're talking about the bands who hadn't been heard of since that decade who are still out there doing their thing, or the new bands that want to sound like they were ripped from the days of the cheapest synths ever made, our backwards gaze has seldom found a worse target. I'll even say this; the very short swing revival made more sense to me than the duration of this 80s fad.

It was for that reason I wasn't totally won over by Chez Kane's debut album, even if she has the kind of voice that can do great things. It was essentially just another 80s nostalgia album, even written by one of the people already doing that sort of thing in underwhelming fashion, and it's hard for someone to sound natural making music from a time before they were even alive.

Her voice is pretty much the only reason I came back and gave this record a try. She has a tone that would have fit in perfectly alongside Ann Wilson, Pat Benatar, and some of the other rock divas of that time. The opening "I Just Want You" more than proves that, with a fantastic vocal performance propping up a classic sounding 80s pseudo-ballad. It's the right kind of cheese, where I can hear them leaning into the conceit of the record. It sounds like more of a nod-and-wink, as opposed to "Rock You Up", which comes across as a vapid yet serious statement. Intentional cheesiness is always better than when it's unintentional. We get them both here.

Sadly, after that first song, there aren't many moments where the overwhelming smell of the past can be ignored. The songwriting falls back into the fluffy variety, where whatever power the melodies have are subservient to the production. The dedication to replicating a sound has led to songs that aren't engaging enough on their own. Taking away many of the keyboard sounds would leave the record without many songs to grip our attention.

Should I have known better? Sure, I probably should have. But to be fair, the two songs that were released as singles are the two best on the record, so I had reason to think there might have been improvement made from the first one. So it really is like the 80s, where the singles give us a false impression of what the whole album is going to sound like. Congratulations?

Chez still has a great voice, and the two singles are well worth hearing, but I'm going to wait for her to get put in a better project before I get excited.