Twelve months after leaving
*NSync-esque boy band
What's Up, Disney Channel pin-up
Eric Saade returns to the hugely populated Swedish dance-pop scene with a solo record which will determine whether he's the band's
Justin Timberlake or the band's Chris Kirkpatrick. Written and produced by the likes of Fredrik Kempe (
BwO), Peter Bostrom (
Alcazar), and Gustav Efraimsson (
September),
Masquerade certainly comes with a pretty stellar pop pedigree, but it's this impressive behind-the-scenes team which proves to be both the album's strength and its downfall. The
Adam Lambert-esque electro-glam of "Radioactive," the pulsating disco-pop of "It's Gonna Rain," which borrows the bubbling synths from
Madonna's "Hung Up," and "Break of Dawn," which ventures into
Ryan Tedder-penned epic power ballad territory, are undeniably all hook-laden and chart-bound slices of contemporary schlager-pop. But apart from his brilliantly overblown Melodifestivalen entry -- "Manboy," which combines a spooky Theremin intro, "Womanizer"-inspired verses, and the kind of ridiculously infectious novelty chorus that makes
the Cheeky Girls sound like
Nick Cave -- its 12 tracks are so utterly generic that they could have been recorded by
Darin, Ola Svensson, or any other Swedish male pop star created by a TV talent show over the last decade.
Saade himself possesses the kind of pleasant but ultimately bland vocals that you would expect from a squeaky-clean boy band member going solo; they provide the perfect blank canvas for the bombastic synth-heavy pop of "Upgrade" and the unusually titled "Why Do We Need Fashion?," but appear overwrought and faux-emotive on piano-led closer "It's Like That with You" and the early noughties-influenced, midtempo "Say It."
Masquerade is a perfectly serviceable Swedish pop record which will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Eurovision without alienating
Saade's teeny bopper audience, but apart from the odd flash of unashamed cheesy-pop nonsense, it's all been done before. ~ Jon O'Brien