Of all the Fabrikants in series 6 of Fabrika Zvezd,Aleksei Hvorostyan is probably one you'd remember least.He left quite early on,and- from what I saw on Po Domam- he was pretty quiet.Anyway,he released his debut album last year- called Padali No Padnimalis.It's very undeserving of the bad reviews I've read of it,because although I can see why it's not to everyone's taste (I don't think it's your typical reality TV star's album),it is very good.Having not seen any of his performances on FZ,I'm not really sure what sort of music I expected from Aleksei,but PNP definitely exceeds expectation.It's high tempo,guitarfull (new word) rock.Sometimes on the pop rock side,sometimes a little bit heavier,but never the kind of moany,self indulgent stuff that's all too common these days.Well,that's what I can gather from the bits I've translated anyway.
The first track is also called Padali No Padnimalis (written by Viktor Drobysh no less).I can't think of a concise way of translating this,but think Chumbawumba "I get knocked down but I get up again" and you're nearly there :) It sets the pace for the rest of the album really- it's fast,punchy and has a great beat to it.Oh,and it's catchy too.With a name like I Get Knocked Down But I Get Up Again (or whatever),it's quite a suitable song for Perviy Kanal's Celebrity boxing programme King of the Ring...
I don't like that video,but it was either that or him duetting with Anastasia Prohodka.And I don't like her.
Track 2 Bitiymi Trevogami (Sound the Alarm) is probably my favourite (that's where the post title comes from).So it's quite annoying that I can't find a video or anything of it.But again,it's fast,it's funky and has some great guitars in it.I could imagine Dima Koldun singing it actually,so it must be good :) Same goes for the next track Ot Posteli Do Posteli really,another good pop-rock song.
After that comes Solnce- Nebo Moyo,which is still rocky,but has an almost disco-like intro and chorus.There's even a bit of vocoder action going on at one point too.Very Krazy Mess Groovers!Here it is,inexplicably combined with footage from Harry Potter.
Halfway through,and V Kapkane Palcev and Povyer (Believe) are the only songs on the album that I don't really like.VKP is a bit too whiny for me,and Povyer- although it's not bad- shows that sometimes Russian has too many syllables to fit in a song and sound nice at the same time :)
The second half is far more moody sounding than the first.It's the heavier kind of rock that I was talking about before,and songs like Levniy Positiv and Padshiy Angel (Fallen Angel) are songs that I could definitely see on music channels like Kerrang if they were in English.Padshiy Angel is quite reminiscent of HIM actually now I think about it.
After all that,Ya Sluzhu Rossii (I serve Russia) seems a strange choice of song to put at the end,especially being a song about the army and everything.Anyway,here's Aleksei singing it at the Zolotoy Gramofon awards last year.
Like I said,Padali No Padnimalis isn't your typical reality TV star's album,but then again,that was one of the great things about Fabrika Zvezd.I miss it already!
2 comments:
I tried to imitate the macho boxing pose for my colleagues at work and they all fell about pissing themselves laughing. How rude. I ultimately blame you for posting such entertaining posts that i must check up on in my lunch hour :P
Very unfair of them,I'm sure you looked every bit as macho as Mr Hvorostyan!
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