Shade - One Way Line

I wish I could say right now that if you love Shania Twain, you’ll love Shade. They list their influences as rock, country and pop. Except that what’s missing here is the country twist that gave Shania Twain her landmark sound.

This album was apparently self-produced in 2006, by band members Emma Shade (vocals), Simon Gardner (keyboards) and Andrew Moore (guitars). I stuck it on in the car, and sure enough I was soon practically singing along. The production quality is excellent, the songs have choruses and I sure was humming along at a steady 56 mph.

And that’s the problem. What you get here is a soft rock, or more precisely pop album, instantly forgettable but not unpleasant to listen to. It would work very well in elevators. Emma Shade has a great voice and doubtless does a fab Shania on karaoke at the local pub. She looks the part too, with the long blonde hair and the slinky leathers. It would be interesting to see what her vocal quality is when she’s not playing safe like this.

Nothing interesting to report on the rest either, I’m afraid. I love to support new bands, but with no thread of individuality in the sound they are one of many and stand no chance, even if they do seem to be quite good at what they do. Perhaps they’ll strike it lucky and one of their tracks may appear at some point in the dim and distant future on a dodgy soft rock compilation featuring unsigned bands, but until they strike out and make themselves distinct from the rest, then that’s where they will remain.