In The Light Of A New Day. Freddie Dilevi

"Candy, Candy, Candy", I can't help singing Iggy Pop's second greatest hit in The Netherlands during the whole of In The Light Of A New Day, Freddie Dilevi's new album. If ever it was possible to point to a single song influencing a whole album, it must be 'Candy'. As I love hearing the song, I take totally no issue with the Spanish band's new album at all.

From the very first song Freddie Dilevi starts to rock out like there's no tomorrow. Guitar, bass, drums is all it takes here. Away they go and with the exception of an odd ballad, 'Misery', sticking out like a sore thumb, the instruments keep at it, including a spruced up version of Chris Isaak's beautiful 'Blue Hotel'. The song gets a kick in the butt as it never has before. To come back to 'Misery', it's not that it's a bad song as such, but what is it doing on this album? A point of rest, okay.

Let's start with the drums for once. Drummer Pablo Guinea has a huge, dry sound giving the sound of the band tremendous depth, while his functional style lays a great foundation, basically taking care of the whole soundscape of the songs. The drums, as it were, envelope Pablo Velazquez' voice. Of course Guinea takes the opportunity to throw in a little fill or break here and there but in the end his drumming is totally functional, serving the song and not his desire to shine. In doing so he has a great role in the sound of Freddie Dilevi.

The bass, because of this, has the chance to play some great bass runs in between of the rhythm notes, embellishing the songs not a little. The kind of details that can make a song so much fun to listen to. it allows me to focus on the different elements of a song and discover more over time. Juanlu Cordero is able to shine and does.

Quique Ruiz' guitars are huge. His tough, tight rhythm playing on a distorted guitar supports the wide sound the drums already created. The solo's are often fiery and short or supportive melodies in between the singing.

With the singing I arrive at the foghorn Pablo Velazquez' voice is. His style is more in line with some crooners from before the The Beatles age, with Johnny Ray and Roy Orbison as examples and should be out of sync with the rock Freddie Dilevi presents. Also post-The Beatles singers like Frank Ifield and Scott Walker, while stylised like Bryan Ferry and yes, Iggy singing 'Candy' of course come to mind. The voice is as huge, albeit not true rock, as the songs are. Convincing it is. Velazquez is obviously not a native English speaker/singer, but who cares when his singing is so nice?

Every once in a while a nice, female backing vocal, by Abbi Fernandez, kicks in to support the vocals with some nice oohs or aahs, and even a backing vocal in the final, fantastic song, 'Cross The Line'. Also I have the idea to hear a Hammond organ here and there, deep in the mix, but I'm just not sure, strange enough. The credits do mention it though. Time to play the album on the living room set alright.

The previous record I heard by Freddie Dilevi gave me a totally different impression, as if it must be another band, filed away wrong. The crooning was not for me. In The Light Of A New Day is. The album is close to a sensation.

Wout de Natris