Run. Rex Rebel

Red, white and blue. The letters of Run in orange? How Dutch can a cover of an album get? That's a good question considering Rex Rebel is a Belgian trio consisting of Sam Bettens, Reinout Swinnen and Wim van der Westen, all K's Choice members. It seems like everyone except Sam's brother is welcome in Rex Rebel.

The guitar, Gert's instrument of choice, is largely missing on Run. At heart it is an electronic album, with synths, electronic drums and rhythms. That makes Run a synthetic album. The instrumentation is down cast. Not so much dark as unhappy. The joy is beaten out of the music by the electronic drums. "I can't even love you any more", Sam Bettens sings 'I Can't Hurt You'. It somehow sums up the album for me.

From there the interesting things on Run start. The days of 'Not An Addict' lie a quarter century behind us. Sarah has become Sam recently and celebrates the transition with an album by a new band with old friends. Where Run scores well is the melodies, while the modest dancebility of songs like 'Moving Out' makes me want to move. The lyrics underscore the general mood though. Also here transition is the topic. "She's moving out. She's not coming back", the quote above, "You can't escape from the demons in your mind", "What if I just die tomorrow", tells you a little about the content.

Promo photo: Frank Clauwers

After a first modest impression I did not find it hard to put Run back on and starting to learn the album from more up close. It is then that I recognise the Madonna influences. Like 'Frozen' comes forward in the title song, without reaching to a climax that Madonna was able to reach in that mysterious ballad. It leaves me with the impression that 'Run' is a missed opportunity. That the song could have been better melodically. It misses a chord change or two. The ending is a nice change but again too monotonous.

I notice that I am being tossed around by Run. At one moment I am listening to the album quite contentedly. It spins in the background and is perfectly alright. The beats pull me towards it and the melodies spin a ring around my ears. On other moments I have the impression that not enough is happening on Run and that the album comes around 20 years too late. The sound is from previous decades. Then I listen to "Too Much To Take" and I notice that I'm impressed by the song. The, real, drums (I think) are a nice feature of the song, like the electric piano is. All in all, it is not unlike my feelings towards Klangstof's new album, 'The Noise You Make Is Silent'.

So, on release of Run, I can't really say where I am with Rex Rebel. It can go either way. Time will tell.

Wo.


Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g