Family Average: 3/7

Hello, hello! We have an artist today who came to us all the way from Sweden. Enrich released his debut album, Happiness earlier this year. It's a compilation of the artist's songs of years past. Was the family feeling his electropop?

Listen along on Spotify and read on to find out:

Oh boy, here we go with some electronic music. "Cause all I do is wait for you, as hours become days" is one of a few tasty lyrics that I feel like I'd love to be screaming while jumping up and down, barefoot on a dancefloor. The whole album actually felt somewhat nostalgic of the early 2000's and the various sweet sixteens I attended, but with a bit of a spooky overtone. "Happiness" especially felt this way. If they wanted to rewrite the scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone when they're in the forbidden forest to feel more like an 80s space horror, then that song could serve as the soundtrack.

Just so many different images and colors to go along with this stuff, really.

4/7

Holy smokes! Got so many Boots and cats in this album I am about to open some kind of Feline footwear emporium! Gosh I really like how that sounded in my head, but not sure if it looks as cool all written out...ah well. Oh my dear dear Enrich. What have you done to me. Sitting at my desk 12:30 in the afternoon with cold sweats, gnawing on a stick of gum, sunglasses on and pupils dilated. No surprise I was sent home from work today, but all the way home you sweet beats kept my limbs moving. Having just finished the whole album, I would say I had a pretty good time, the second half of the thing being the more enjoyable to me. Check it out if you need some night driving music (and also drive really really fast).

4/7

Everyone remembers a kid in highschool that would love to tell you he was a “singer”; he was destined for fame. When you finally heard him sing you knew he was terrible, but you didn't care enough to tell him. Well now, here is your bad karma because that kid just made an album.

While I appreciate the effort to try and pave a way for yourself, with some background in electronic music who has supported small artists in the past, I have to say this album is plagued with novice mistakes. The appropriately titled track, “I can make you suffer too” features some lackluster trap and chop that needs improvement. Was the song supposed to be experimental, trying to break free from standard electro bullshit? Instead, it ends up sounding like a collage electro techno samples without direction. What’s more, is the monotone voice plagues this album. Keep trying Enrich, and maybe you’ll prove your friends from High School...and me...wrong.

1/7

Disclaimer: This is not usually my preferred genre, so it really wasn’t my cup of tea from the get-go.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like this album was all the same song. The monotone vocals match the monotony of the album, so it’s got that going for it. I also just kept thinking this is the music Hugh Grant would sing as a pop star in an early 2000s rom-com (shoutout to Kelsey who made an earlier Hugh Grant reference here). I didn’t enjoy the pounding synth beats, and found the but the repetition of lyrics like, “I’m so happy but I’m feeling sad” to be tedious. This made me frustrated because I recognize the passion this guy has for his music is palpable, and I really wanted to reciprocate that. However, it just left me in a semi stressed out stupor.

2/7

Please, make it stop. Besides all the tracks sounding identical, it felt as if I was standing outside a door listening to someone singing in the shower. Honestly, that is what it sounded like. As if I was listening to a man singing in the shower. I could not decipher one instrument; it sounded like a washing machine, a blender, and a very happy man singing in the shower. It was forgettable from the first opening track. I honestly don't know what he was trying to accomplish. It was so funny I refuse to believe it is a serious work of music.

1/7

I like to cry-dance to sad lyrics over synth beats as much as any other gay, but you probably won’t find me grinding to this music.

I can forgive some lazy writing except when it’s on every track. Pair poor writing with Henric’s monotone singing and you’re almost at a total loss. I will say the production throughout the album isn’t half bad, so that’s one plus. There’s a track titled “I Can Make You Suffer Too” and that seems like the overall concept for this music.

1/7

Kinda had a Depeche Mode vibe to it, or something you’d hear playing at a Euro rave. I appreciate that they tried a couple different song styles while still fitting within the techno genre, but it wasn’t enough variety for the amount of tracks on the album. Many of the songs just sounded the same.

It starts out slow, but after the midway point of the album does the music start to hit its stride. When it deviates from its usual path is where it really starts to stand out. In “Believe”, for instance, the normally flat singer has more life in his vocals, and the music has a more jaunty feel to it. The inclusion of the piano in “Just Because I’m Missing You” was another bit of experimenting that I think worked for them.

In general though, this album just needs more substance. It’s too bland for my taste, and the singer needs to find a style of voice that works better with the music.

2/7