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November 22, 2024


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Rob Dougan
Furious Angels (Warner Bros.)

By: Alex Steininger

Rob Dougan's Furious Angels is one of the most vital records to come out this year, a bridge between the past and the future, as heavily orchestrated pop and soundtrack-style music comes in contact with electronica. At the center of it is Rob Dougan himself, his deeply rich, dark, and slightly gruff voice adding the element of suspense to his tension building, groove-laden, beautifully composed concoctions.

"There's Only Me" lives through the constant drum beat thumping through the song, the bass pulsating as the strings add an element of lush-ness, all while Dougan's voice everything together. Then there is the tension of "Will You Follow Me?", an instrumental you could imagine on any one dozen of Hollywood's latest blockbusters. Lovely and delicate, it gives the album the grace and compassion it needs to hit its equilibrium.

Dougan, however, doesn't stop there. The instrumental interlude of track 8, simply titled "Instrumental", adds more beauty to the CD, while its follow-up "Nothing At All", is a haunting piano pop song enriched by the electronica backing Dougan brings into the picture.

The orchestration is over the top, making the album one of the most glamorous, melodically rich discs to come out this year. While still retaining a sense of dirt and grind following the electronica influences, surprisingly enough. Dougan does to pop what few have done before him, taking it into a whole new realm while simply beefing up what was already there. I'll give it an A.

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