Anneke Van Giersbergen
Drive

The voice behind the greatness of dutch gothic/alternative rockers The Gathering who probably inspired the whole female fronted dutch gothic movement that has sprung some fantastic bands. The Gathering is one of those fantastic, Anneke came into that band and appeared on their breakthrough album and then all the way until 2007 when she left the band to go for her solo career. A solo career I have completely missed as we have not been given those albums, until now. This is her fourth studio album and it is called Drive, which has a cover photo that is not that flattering to her. But what about the album then, can I expect something along the lines of The Gathering, or is it something different?

Well, it is not what one would expect if expecting something like The Gathering or something along the lines of her guest appearances that has been with many progressive or Gothic bands/artists like Ayreon, Devin Townsend or Within Temptation. It is more straightforward poppish rock music with quite a bit of drive, good energy but also with some classy ballads and things like that. The sound is great, dynamic and powerful. The vocals are absolutely brilliant and the catchiness of the album is very strong. I would call this an excellent production. And it is short with only about 37 minutes of playing time on ten tracks that shows a fair deal of variation within the theme. One thing is a bit strange though and that is the label, InsideOut is a progressive label and this album is not progressive in anyway so that is a bit strange.

As I alluded slightly towards in the previous paragraph, it is an excellent album. I cannot really see anything wrong with it as all the songs are excellent, the vocals amazing, the performances of all the musicians is brilliant and besides the label there is nothing even remotely close to subpar. It is strange how this drab year has come alive lately with so many excellent releases and this one definitely is among the best. I would say that of all the female fronted poprock albums I have ever heard, this is definitely one of the absolute best. I love this album, it is just fantastic.

As I stated before, all the tracks are great but there is one greater than all else. The fifth track called My Mother Said is this fantastically beautiful ballad that stands head and shoulder above most music I have heard this year, if not all. It is such a wonderful song, very near perfect I would say. Last time I drove any longer distance I played this song over and over for over 80 kilometres, it is just that good as you never grow bored with it is easy to just play over and over and over again as it is just that good that you want to hear it so many times. But it is not alone this song, as there are nine more great songs and if we are to believe the ending song the best is still yet to come. If that is true, it would mean that we have an even greater album to expect in the future.

Impressive album, impressive singer and band. An album that I can recommend to anyone as it is a brilliant album and in older times when music was selling this would sell like ice cream on a hot sunny day. And it would be played endlessly on the radio, I doubt that will happen now though but if you love music I recommend that you take a very close look at this album.

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