Boytronic – Jewel

Boytronic - Jewel

Album facts

Release: November 3rd, 2017
Label: Metropolis Records
Genre: , ,
Discogs: Link

Boytronic are back

Of course, we all know the 80s super­hit 'You', we love this song and it's a must-play on every good 80s party. After a long time-out in the 90s, a heavy stroke of fate, two unfor­tu­nate comeback attempts, as well as numer­ous changes of the band mem­bers, 'Boytronic' want to prove them­selves again in 2017. This time on board is the sing­er 'James Knight' (KNIGHT$ and Scarlet Soho), who integ­rates per­fectly into 'Boytronic' and gives the sound the neces­sary rejuvenation.

I really like the art­work with the Venetian mask. A must-have wall dec­or­a­tion in the 80s. Visually, the art­work also has an 80s aes­thet­ic and reminds me a little of the cov­er design of the artist 'Steve Strange' (Visage) who died too early.

Old school Synth Pop in a new dress

The open­er and the first single 'Time After Midnight' could not have been chosen bet­ter. Because 'Boytronic' opens their 'Jewel' with a first-class Synth Pop song, which has enough 80ies charm and at the same time sounds con­tem­por­ary. The fresh cell cure can already be clearly seen in the first application.

The second song 'The Universe' is delighted with pos­it­ive vibes. Warm, ana­logue syn­thes­izer melod­ies accom­pany the almost euphor­ic singing. The track begins like a bal­lad, but then turns into a kind of music­al hug and everything becomes good again in the end. I really feel touched by this emo­tion­al song and won­der about that nos­tal­gic feel­ing I have at this moment.

Boytronic - Press picture 2017
Boytronic (2017)

'Give the monkey some sugar' …

… is lit­er­ally a German say­ing for some­thing sim­il­ar to 'ride one's hobby­horse'. That's because I want to shout: "YOU! You look full of won­der … of mir­acles I see", after the first seconds. but then the typ­ic­al 90s Techno hi-hats inter­rupt my routinely music­al flow. Don't worry, we will stay in the Synth Pop genre, but the mix with subtle 90s Techno instru­ments and samples make this song sounds fresh. An energy loaded and great work­ing idea.

Furthermore the fifth track 'My Baby Lost Its Way' sounds some­how famil­i­ar to me. And yes, this is a new ver­sion of the clas­sic song that appears ori­gin­ally on the debut album 'The Working Model' in 1983. The lyr­ics are writ­ten down­right pictori­ally and thereby cre­ates images in my mind of a typ­ic­al, cheesy 80s "story" music video. The older vis­it­ors of my site cer­tainly know what I mean. The parts with the organ could be also from a 'Duran Duran' track of the 80s. Just awesome!

Mantronic

It's get­ting ser­i­ous in 'Dark Passion'. Lyrically and music­ally it sounds much more mature and adult than the pre­vi­ous tracks on 'Jewel'. With a touch of Darkwave the song feels also a bit more mel­an­chol­ic. This gives the entire album a glim­mer­ing vari­ety plus a shade of dark­ness that every good Synth Pop album needs.

'Big Hands For The Dreamers' is a bril­liant song that every 80s fan will instantly love. The voice and the ton­al tone sequence in the first verse, I imme­di­ately asso­ci­ate with the typ­ic­al sound of 'Apoptygma Berzerk'. At this high level, the song con­tin­ues to move, just a little softer.

Travel back in time

The song 'Disco City' let us travel back to the 70s. The shiny dec­ade of disco balls, robot­ic voices, space-aged samples and a funky dance beat. That's the main vibe of this song! Another vari­ation that makes the album 'Jewel' so valuable.

The last song is son­ic­ally the most mod­ern track on the album. It still has a small reflec­tion of an 80s dia­mond. It's kind of funny that the acous­tic time dif­fer­ence seems to be the greatest in the last two songs. But maybe that's what 'Boytronic' wanted. Certainly a fin­ger-point­ing that music­al dec­ades don't neces­sar­ily have to fight.

A true jewel

'Jewel' is a fant­ast­ic album I've been wait­ing for years now to exist. It com­bines all that a mod­ern Synth Pop album needs to be suc­cess­ful in 2017. I guess the united gen­er­a­tions in 'Boytronic' should be a role mod­el in the whole scene.

Classic Synth Pop nev­er felt more alive than on the cur­rent album 'Jewel'. You can clearly see, we don't need a music­al gap between our gen­er­a­tions. We need to unite to cre­ate some­thing beau­ti­ful like this. Support 'Boytronic' by buy­ing this splen­did album and vis­it their upcom­ing concerts.

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2017‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

Boytronic - Jewel
Boytronic – Jewel
Time After Midnight
The Universe
Mad Love
Share
My Baby Lost Its Way
Jewel
Dark Passion
Free To Love
Big Hands For The Dreamers
Disco City
New Year's Day
Recommend
Time After Midnight
My Baby Lost Its Way
Dark Passion
New Year's Day
Weak
(Nothing to report here)
4.1
Fantastic

Most popular posts of the last 30 days

Founder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time After Midnight
The Universe
Mad Love
Share
My Baby Lost Its Way
Jewel
Dark Passion
Free To Love
Big Hands For The Dreamers
Disco City
New Year's Day
Final Score