Jarel Portman teamed up with some of the most prolific studio musicians to create Supersonic. I’ll say right off the bat that the performances are great and the production to about as commercially viable as you can get. It was a little bit hard for me to put my finger on this style of rock. For one thing it didn't feel like an “indie rock” from any era. In my opinion the music has more in common with rock and pop acts from the ’80s and ’90s. However, there are deviations in style. There is very little experimentation as far as structure goes. A good amount of the songs felt as if they have FM radio potential.
The album starts with the title track which is one of the highlights. It’s a dynamic song with a number of catchy hooks. Other than that there weren’t many surprises. The same could be said about “Runaway Blues.” However, I will point out that the guitar reminded me of something The Edge from U2 would play. “Around” which was one of the highlights sounded a little more ’70s inspired in the spirit of a band like Led Zeppelin. “Acetylence” sounded like a run of the mill rock/pop song I would have heard on the radio anytime in the last twenty-five years. “Make it Ok” was more off-kilter. However, there are still plenty of hooks. I thought “Over and Over (Hey Oh, Hey Oh)” felt like a significant deviation in a number of ways. There is a reggae guitar part at points and the song is upbeat, almost a Jimmy Buffet type feel. I liked the song but it came out of left field. I was waiting for the ballad and it came with “The Architect (It’s All About Love)” which hits all the normal criteria. ”Fine” is a highlight and another song that really doesn’t feel all that connected to other songs on the album. The band attempts a cover song with “Here Comes the Sun” which felt too close to the original for me to get a kick out of. As the album progresses there are some inspired moments. There is no doubt a lot of work went into this album and I have an appreciation for any artist where I can see that is evident. The songwriting is solid and the performances are great including the vocals. My main issue is the songs seemed derivative from numerous sources and I couldn't identify the signature sound of Portman with so many different approaches from popular genres. The songs also followed a rulebook like structure predictability with very little out of the box thinking as to where else a song could go. Perhaps that was the intention but in my opinion you fall into serious danger of becoming forgettable if you don’t take chances with sonic possibilities, structure, etc. That being said I didn’t dislike this album. In fact I would recommend it to people who prefer radio friendly songs and appreciate a simple song that they can sing along with in the shower, That might be you, so give it a listen.
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