One of the best things about being a total music junkie is that every day you wake up wondering what unexpected musical discoveries might come your way. Yesterday was a case in point. When you live close to an army base, you can be sure that the local thrift stores will have import CD's you're not likely to see many other places, in particular from Germany. That was pretty much the only reason why I picked up the self-titled debut album from Sven Schumacher. I had no idea even what kind of music it might be - blues, hard rock, folk. I figured it might have some resale value, and I kind of liked the classic car on the cover. And the money was going to a good cause, anyway.I needn't have worried. On closer inspection, the tracklist revealed not only a cover version of Icehouse's classic "Hey Little Girl" but also such promising titles as "Lonely Vampire" and "Youth Was Wild". On first listen I was greeted with the classic europop sound, with buckets of melody, smooth production, lightly accented vocals. It actually reminded me of Casey Stratton or Darren Hayes. Yeah, I liked it.
Apparently poor Sven is largely ignored, even in his home country. His website is nonfunctional, the one or two reviews I could translate were largely unimpressed, and few people seem to have heard of him. And that's too bad.
