Release Date: November 22nd, 2006
Label: Columbia
Darin Zanyar the popstar was borne from the first season of Swedish Idol, one of the many spin-offs from the massive worldwide Idol franchise. He didn’t win (coming in second) but if you’ve ever watched any Idol program, it’ll give you a good idea as to what kind of music Darin records. Break The News, as with his previous two releases, is pure mainstream teen pop. Luckily, it’s also a near perfection of the genre.
Break The News finds Darin sounding like a feisty boy band member gone solo (though he was never affiliated with any boy band). He coos, over emotes and snarls at exactly the right points. The sound is manufactured and for the most part overly familiar. However, there are points (the lead single Perfect, album-opener Insanity and party track Saturday Night) that muster an intense pop fervor that hints at what Darin is wisely aiming for. Similarly, chest-beating ballad Everything But The Girl has hit written all over it, and the electro thump of club tracks If You Wanna and Desire shows some dance floor promise. In fact, what Break The News lacks in inventiveness, it makes up for in pure spunk. It’s only in the record’s second half where the cracks begin to show. What If I Kissed You Now and The Thing About You are typical boy band fodder, undistinguishable from countless chart acts.
Processed pop music is at times unfairly maligned for being lightweight and unnecessary, but in many cases the sneers are well deserved. Thankfully, Break The News is the rare exception. While there’s no doubt that this is a party record, it is amongst the best of its genre released this year. Best of all, within the album’s teen-pop framework are some glimmers of artistic potential. B+
Key Tracks: Perfect, Saturday Night, Everything But The Girl
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