“Taking Chances,” the second track on Platinum Weird (and my personal favourite), is a ballad – or as close to it as Platinum Weird get. It is about taking a chance on someone new: “I just want to start again/ maybe you could show me how to try/ maybe you take me in/ somewhere underneath your skin.” The lyrics have that alluring, damsel in distress/ knight in shining armour feel but with the emotive nuance of a strong woman afraid to be vulnerable. DioGuardi’s strong, passionate, bodacious voice lends itself to this feeling. This track touched me.
Lyrically, on Platinum Weird you can pick out parts of Stewart/Eurythmics with lines like “When the rain comes tumbling down” and “Talk to me, talk to me like lovers do/ Walk with me, walk with me like lovers do”. However DioGaurdi is no artistic slouch and you can feel her feminine presence on every lyric. Together Stewart and DioGaurdi make a formidable team.
Platinum Weird’s debut album is a work of lyrical, musical and vocal beauty. Platinum Weird may have accomplished what so many others have tried to do before them- write another Rumours. With the bluesy, indie-rock flavour of today and the lyrical, musical and vocal polish of two artists that are so very talented and understand what they want to say, this album can’t miss. Never has this reviewer been more excited about a new album or rock-duo.
Platinum Weird's debut self-titled album is out in the US on September 19 and in early January 2007 in the UK and Europe. If you would like to listen to Platinum Weird’s “70’s” versions of their album you can visit their MySpace space. Or you can visit Platinum Weird’s own website to hear a few of the updated tracks.
Article comments
1 - zingzing
unfortunately, the story's better than the music... which is pretty much MOR slop with mild attempts at some sort of interesting production that is undermined by the fact that it is usually so predictable and lazy. the songwriter's hack origins are also somewhat evident. enough, it seems, to make me cringe... or maybe that was just the fact that my coffee went cold. did she do that, too? wretched...
anyway, don't think you're alone with the hallmark channel, we've got it here as well. we here in the usa invented crap television and if you think we'll let some european country have worse tv than us, you've got another thing coming. like more crap tv, i guess.
2 - Marissa
Rumors had, and still does have, a deep sincerity about it. Not once listening to that classic, have I ever felt like something on it was just a song. Fleetwood Mac wrote a lot of -if not all of- those songs on a personal level. Emotions and personal experiences were infused into them. On a superficial level, Platinum Weird have managed to sound similar, and it sounds OK but I wouldn't go so far as to say they've written another Rumors. In some cases this new set of songs are irritating to listen to all the way through and seem to drag on. Maybe their next attempt will turn out better, but for now, in no way do they come close to Fleetwood Mac.
I have to give them credit for the atmosphere and backstory, etc, that they made to go with it.