Producer/DJ
Justin Michael makes his full-length debut with the house-inflected dance-pop of
Everything. While the 12 songs here aren't quite mainstream enough to bounce
Fergie off the top of the charts, they are undeniably pop songs. Of the three main singers, Donnie Romello is the most talented and distinctive, with a delivery that recalls
Off the Wall-era
Michael Jackson on the lush "Stay with Me."
Gina Rene is a fairly average Euro-diva, while Jason Lent's rougher-edged vocals are perfect for slightly harder material like opening track and first single "Play House" (a sardonic tune about how DJs never seem to attract the girls' attention after he's turned off his turntables) and the pure disco rush of "Dancefloor." Even more melodic than
Eric Prydz's ventures into the pop world (
Prydz's "Call on Me" owes its massive sales mostly to
Steve Winwood's vocal hook and that fairly scorching video),
Everything is proof that the house club and the radio aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. ~ Stewart Mason