Heiarii – Dance!

Heiarii – Dance! / 2006 Allure Records / 12 Tracks / http://www.heiariidance.com / Reviewed 27 May 2006

As one can probably guess, what Heiarii opens up eir “Dance!” with is something that resembles the boy-band dance music of the Backstreet Boys. The style of dance music may seem to be dated by a few years but that does not hinder Heiarii from creating tracks that are interesting in their own right. The production is good for a small-market dance act (many of the albums seem unnaturally digitized or otherwise operate at a level below that of major label work), but Heiarii’s music is something that could conceivably be heard on a dance station. “Kiss Me Goodbye” follows the boy-band formula even more than “the self-titled opening to the disc did, even down to the dance breakdown that is provided during the middle of the track. Heiarii is really working at this a few years too late, but one cannot fault eir too much as the music is solid at some base level.

The arrangement of the largely-synthesized music on “Dance!” and the vocals that Heiarii throws out on these tracks work together well; there is no disconnect in the ability that the both parts exhibit on the disc. The only thing that does not seem to work for Heiarii during the early part of this albuym is the Michael Jackson-like falsetto that is dominant during “You’ll Be Mine At Midnight”. The entire track is driven by this Michael Jackson-influenced set of vocals, but Heiarii has trouble hitting the high registers during the track. At some point, there has been a lot of work done in crafting an image and a sound for Heiarii on this album. At some other point, this persona is not solid and shows that Heiarii still has a while to go before completely fitting into this role.

Any of the songs on this disc could conceivably be on the radio, but there are minor things that will irk listeners after listening to the track once or twice. Most times, the problem is small; the dreadfully slow tempo of a song like “You Took My Heard Away” is something that could be fixed if the final recording was sped up a few beats per minute. Heiarii can be a teen idol, but the album needs to be tighter to allow eir to do that. Perhaps this will happen with the next album.

Top Tracks: Dance, Haunting My Heart

Rating: 4.2/10

[JMcQ]