Formosa
Danger Zone

The opening track Dynamite is so explosive, rebellious, and in your face as you can desire for an album of the more garage rockish variety. There and then when hearing it for the first time I was ready for the arsenal of superlatives and positive wordings. Problem is that the third album by Essen trio Formosa doesn’t quite deliver on the explosive promise that is set by the opening track and most of the tracks are more confirmative and average, and the cover art isn’t exactly explosive either.
 
You could describe Formosa as simple, straightforward, no-nonsense, garage styled rock music – a bit of a DIY feel, I think. Back to basics, is probably another way to look at it. The songs are simple and catchy, the vocals don’t raise eyebrows and the same can be said about the sound. To be hones I think they could have worked a little harder on the sound as the production leaves a little to be desired. Moreover, the variation is pretty okay over the album and playing time sensible – it feels like honest album where the goal is to make straightforward music.

It starts excellently and explosively; it continues less than that. The best tracks like opener Dynamite and Starry Eyes are probably superlative tracks but the rest are quite average, no bad, but how to you summarise that into a logical conclusion? I think that the middle rating fits, this album has life, it has charm, it has some great stuff, and the rebellious feel that you want all rock music to have, but it is also pretty far from being great and it is probably far less memorable than a good album should be.

Third album is okay for Formosa, but I think that they have to do much better if they want to stand out and if they want to be remembered. They probably should have dared to venture closer to the Danger Zone.

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