Sweetbox // #Z21

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It’s been a couple of years since the last release of a Sweetbox album (2011’s Diamond Veil) but the group is back with a new line up, and for the first time in the group’s history, there are two members and one of them is Japanese. #Z21 is the 9th studio album overall, but is the first outing for Japanese singer Miho Fukuhara & Antiguan LogiQ Pryce.

#Z21 (#Zeitgeist21) opens the album in style. Sampling Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra (now probably infamously associated with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey) it’s a dancey little number yet feels an appropriate introduction to our two new members. Nothing Can Keep Me From You (Ain't No Mountain) might seem familiar but the verses have been given a unique twist from LogiQ in that the only section that remains is the chorus. All 4 Love (Skyfall) opens with a great little guitar piece and give us almost a feeling of Italian & mafia.

Every Rose opens with a beautiful a capella of the chorus before we brought into what sounds like a dark track but there is ultimately a message of hope lying behind it. With an opening of Debussy’s Clare De Lune, Beautiful is another little dance number. Life Is Good (featuring Iriebox; Irie means good or cool)is a bright and upbeat track and could be seen as a sequel to the Adagio track Life is Cool with a great Caribbean feel. Alone is a haunting beautiful track featuring vocals from Justin D. Nation (or as some might recognise him, Justin ‘Jus Bus’ Nation) and is a song we think that everyone can relate to at some point in their life.

Aase's Death is an interesting track sampling the Grieg track of the same name and features Miho reading a Japanese poem over the track but again, is a dancy little number, even if it does remind us of the Cirque Du Soleil. Carol Of The Bells is yet another well known track but again has a modern day twist to it brought by LogiQ whilst My Understatement has a bit of Destiny’s Child sort of vibe to it. The final track, Justified, comes across as a nice little acoustic number featuring Miho on vocals and some guitars & a little percussion and is a brilliant way to round off the album but is a great little sunshine track on it’s own. 

Whilst maybe not as obvious as with previous releases, the classical sampling is still here and whilst we’ve seen people claiming this new album isn’t Sweetbox, it’s worth remembering that back when the group first came into existence, there was more of a dance vibe going on. But as with any group, there will be those who have their preferred front person, and that’s fine. Back to this album and overall, we feel the album as a whole has something from the past 8 but at the same time there is something new here. We’ve come to expect the unexpected from this group and learn not to take titles that we think we recognise at face value. All we ask is that fans give the new line up a listen and look forward to what’s to come next.

Rating: 5/5