Soulicit
Parking Lot Rockstar

Hell Yeah! Hell Yeah! Is how this album begins. It's Soulicits debut album and they call it 'Parking Lot Rockstar' and after nine months with pretty decent success in home turf USA it finally hit the European market the last of August. It hasn't had any real success here yet, though, and perhaps that's because Europe seldom share the enthusiasm for music from America the same way America often likes European music but personally I think this album has plenty of potential and I can't really see why Soulicit couldn't be successful here as well.

What I find best with 'Parking Lot Rockstar' are the slower songs on the album and hence I especially like the songs Beauty Queen, Complicated, Sticks And Stones and To Cold To Pray while the more up tempo songs makes less progress in my world and actually feels almost like a burden for Soulicit on this album. The opening track, their top 40 hit on the mainstream rock chart, Hell Yeah is in my opinion the worst song on this album and while they're in minority I think all real rock songs on 'Parking Lot Rockstar' feels anonymous and almost dull rather than fun and interesting, as I'm guessing they had in mind. A point to make though is that without the faster songs this album would have been quite a lot more dull and uninteresting because while I still somewhat think that they are like the snake is for the garden of Eden (a pretty bad design) the album already consist of more slow and slower mid-tempo stuff than fast and fast mid-tempo and it's not like all of these are great either and an album full of only that kind of songs would definitely not help the album. The point I'm trying to make is that the share of songs in different tempos are ok, it's the fast songs that just don't deliver.

Darick Parson is the name of Soulicits lead vocalist and the way he sings and the voice he sings with is an almost frightening caricature over the vocalists within this genre - not that he's bad, quite the oposite he has a strong and powerful clean voice that still has that harsh surface of a sandpaper like most vocalists in this genre, but it's just to typical for the genre. And quite similar voices as the one Nickelbacks Chad Kroeger or any of the other voices from the genre. Still, it's difficult to see Parsons voice as anything but something positive for Soulicit as he sings really good, so good news to anyone who likes Nickelback and those kinds of bands… worse for the identity of Soulicit, which is on the verge of being a band you always confuse with another band.

However, the rocking from the guitars are enough to get me moving along with the music. The ballads are comfortable and the mid-tempo songs that dominate the album offers those real diamonds in the mix. The music is quite simple and scaled down, nothing more than the most necessary is presented, like guitars, bass, drums and vocals. That might sound boring and often is that, but on this album it works well and doesn't give the music a paltry feeling. The sound is so good and everything just flows on so nicely that it never feels like being thrown out in the rain or stuck in some sort of vacuum where gets awkward with unelcome silences. I understand everything they've done on 'Parking Lot Rockstar' and it all makes sense and feels logical, but without overstating it. As a whole I think this album presents its music well and the music is overall very good.

So why haven't it got the same response here as it has in the US? Well, partly I think it's because of the weaker songs, like their main single Hell Yeah and the songs You Are The Song and Blow Me Away - Hell Yeah is like a worn out party song, You Are The Song is almost exactly like Sticks And Stones that follows but without a chorus and Blow Me Away feels so much like a Nickelback song that it just can't be called their own. But mainly I think the problem is the lack of promotion here. Soulicit would knock many dominos over easily if they reached some audience - preferably live. But it's mostly people that like this kind of stoner rock, classic american rock and rock with bluesy influences that will really love this, but for that genre I'm sure Soulicit has potential to be one of the greatest! This is only their first step out in the world, but the future looks good!

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