R&b/pop
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday June 21, 2008
SAM SPARRO
Sam Sparro (Universal)Here's another Australian who is quite the fashionable thing in Britain while having the sort of low profile back here that could see people of a certain age assuming a reincarnation of Gary O'Callaghan's avian companion from the old 2UE breakfast show. Sparro's musical area is not much more modern than that show, concentrating on Michael Jackson's early '80s sound (with echoes of that Jackson-aided, one-hit wonder Rockwell, he of Somebody's Watching Me) and Bobby Brown's new jack swing blend of light hip-hop and almost cartoonishly sexy modern R&B. There's keyboard bass (and some slap bass occasionally), synth riffs, baggy pants beats and high end vocals. There's also some pre-heroin Depeche Mode, squelchy computer sounds and some rather polite attempts to be just the slightest bit sleazy. In other words, everything you need for instantly digestible dance-floor shakers for the big-hair, big-shoulder-pad crowd. It's not the worst thing you'll hear all year, either.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald