Over the years we’ve seen rock, pop and hard rock slowly erode into over-commercialized, corporate puppet shows providing music that is extremely sing songy, predictable, popish & highly corporate. I hereby call this new breed of music “Poser Rock” & I want to personally thank all the corporate giants for successfully transforming “Sex Drugs & Rock n Roll” into “Yoga, Vitamins, and Nikelback” Of course millions of musical lemmings don’t know the difference, but trust me when I say not everyone is highly entertained. Talking to many music fans out there the response is overwhelming. Give me something new, something raw, something that’s pushes the envelope with a fresh sound that doesn’t leave it soul at the door. Something that doesn’t sound like Nikelback, Daughtry or Lifehouse.
So across my desk slides the new CD by Irelands own Robert O’Connor entitled “Resistance.” What I heard put a smile on my face. It’s a nice easy flowing record that delivers solid songwriting with a nice folkish-rock feel. O’Connor reminds me of a modern day Jack Johnson, Rob Thomas, with maybe a hint of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and even Counting Crows. You will also hear a side of Power Pop, Americana and Classic Rock and even Folk. If you like the above bands you should definitely check out this CD. My favorite track is probably “Older.” CD is available on AMAZON and SOUNDCLOUD.
My only criticism — O’Connor needs to come out of his shell with respect to his vocals and overall emotion. Overall vocal style is a bit repetitive overall. Spice it up laddy — this is the ultimate selling point that you mean what you say.
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“Resistance” by Robert O’Connor is clearly a solid release with many feel good rock grooves with a pleasant rock driven guitar sound that is a pleasure to listen to. It’s a record that gives us a fresh glimpse at an amazing artist and takes us back a few years — before everything started sounding like — well Nikelback.
By Kevin Huber
Edited by Cyrus Rhodes
