Magic is the reason that this latest music surprise has materialized onto "The Music Spectrum"! Wolf's Magic, that is, as in the moniker used by my American music friend who's been following all of my music blogs since the days of "The Music Nexus". I don't know what sort of magical incantations or other wizardry he weaved in order to obtain the self-titled debut album by the Dutch r&b group called ROMÉO, but it worked to perfection, and it's enabled me to cross off another item that had been on my personal music wishlist! If memory serves me right, ROMÉO is now the fourth artist I've encountered whose members are of Dutch nationality; my past encounters were the boybands LEXINGTON BRIDGE (I wonder what those guys are up to now?), CAUGHT IN THE ACT (just listened to their self-titled debut album again recently, for old time's sake) and MEN2B—all of whom have been featured here at "The Music Spectrum" previously. With the accent placed on the 'E', I assumed their name would be pronounced differently with stress being placed on that letter, but turns out that their name is said exactly as it's pronounced in the title of the popular Shakespearean play, "Romeo And Juliet" (the guy giving the introduction on the opening track even says so). The accent on the 'E', perhaps, was just to stylize their name and differentiate them from the oodles of other artists named 'Romeo' (I found a list of at least thirty of them on the Discogs database by itself!). Let's get down to the music! Instant good impressions were made upon me after the first playing of "Coming Home"—the remixed version. Great voices by the group's four members, and whoever this 'Jay' guy was, he sure did a superb job in creating a terrific beat for it. Went onto my 'Feelgood Mix' playlist right after it ended. The original version found on Track #12 sounds great as well, but once you've heard the remix, it'll almost be obsolete. "Secret Love" was the song that introduced me to ROMÉO, thanks to a video I came across on Youtube. It's not a cover of the classic Luther Vandross song, as I had expected, but it is one of the nicest songs on this album in terms of lyrics and melody. Can't remember if it was the original version or the remixed version, but just as with "Coming Home", I prefer the remixed version here as well. Track #3's "Got To Be" has 'got to be' the most thrilling song! Totally loving the electro-new jack swing beat, the funky groove and the computerized voice effects—a second instant addition to the 'Feelgood Mix'. I thought the beat sounded similar to Stevie Wonder's "Jungle Fever", a hit from both the 1991 movie and soundtrack by the same name. It's especially nice hearing their voices coming together on "Always Fall For Love", "When You Put Your Lips To Mine" and "Your Love", which easily offers up the best r&b groove on the entire album. The strongest performance overall—sound, vocals, and songwriting—could be represented by Track #8's "I Don't Wanna Talk About It", but then again, there isn't a weak link to be found anywhere among these songs. If there was a weak spot that needed mentioning, it would be that ROMÉO, at least to my knowledge, has only released this one album to date. So does that mean they qualify for that list of boybands and male vocal groups that did one album before disappearing from the music spotlight? Possibly. Though with the current resurgence of boybands happening all across the globe, we hopefully haven't heard the last of ROMÉO either:
1. Coming Home (Jay's Remix)
2. Secret Love (R'n'G Radio Mix)
3. Got To Be
4. Always Fall For Love
5. Your Love
6. The One For Me
7. When You Put Your Lips To Mine
8. I Don't Wanna Talk About It
9. Like Someone In Love
10. Trippin' On To You
11. Secret Love (Original)
12. Coming Home (Original)
13. Your Love (Live Remix)
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