One of the best things about music is it lets you fall. in this case with a new release from Swedish rockers Violet Janine (ja-nine) you’re going to fall in love. Lead singer Janine Nyman can certainly hold her own and her soulful edge comes through with emotions she’s not even trying to hide. As you make your way though Between Red and Blue you are going to fall in love. time and time again.
There are times I want to save the best songs for last but this release makes choosing such things a certain 1st world problem. But hey, the struggle here is real and in the end you’re going to declare it a 9 way tie and call it a day. Each song is simply good enough to be the “lead song” on many albums, but as luck would have it they put them all here for us, easy to find making this one of the more solid releases out there today. The rest of the band consists of Daniel Palmqvist, Basse Blyberg, Ian Brunnberg and Many Lewys; this group has created a pretty incredible experience.
The run time of this release is said to be 35 minutes. That stands out to me cause it took me many days to get through it all to be honest as i kept hitting rewind to listen to any given song over and over again.
and again.
One of the songs that i had such a hard time moving past was the duet with Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin on So Much More. The acoustic guitar beginning set the tone for something special. Tony’s vocals are a change and can startle you out of being lost in Janines vocals up to this point, but you’ll soon find your head waving to the music and if anything like me, by the 5th rewind you’ll be singing with Janine. Or Tony – your call. 🙂 The story in this song holds its own and told very well as the two play off of each other. the line that stands out is simple but a certain…tagline…of the song.
“Well if I died right now I would tell God that you saved me”.
Classic duet of falling in love told so very well.
Next up that I’ll mention is another slower song (i love those, to be honest) in Tell Me. This is yet another song you’ll rewind enough until you can sing along with it but for this release, that seems standard fare. Every song is simply easy to get lost into and relate to your own life experiences. I could name some ladies of the 80s she would remind you of, sure. but she has the type of sound you’ll be comparing others to in short order.
Down to 1 more song to talk about before I link you up to a few of their videos, and this is the high energy song and yet, another duet. Another *great* duet with Euro Rocker Pontus Snibb (Bonafide – gonna go check them out next) and yea, you’re stereo will need to go to 11 for this one. If you’re old, like me, you’ll remember some good times to sounds just like this and it will warm your heart this “sound” still lives. If you’re a little (maybe a lot) younger, THIS. when your parents tell you how bad ass music used to be – THIS is what they mean.
Give it a shot. You’re gonna fall in love time and time again.
(and our 80s wonder writer jessica caught the john leven (europe) part in here!)
video diaries
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