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Sol3 Mio: On Another Note - review

Oct 27, 2015 Music

New Zealand loves light opera. Even back in the 1960s, operatic contenders “crossed over” to the commercialism of the pop market. Heck, even a young Kiri Te Kanawa released an album with The Beatles’ “Yesterday” on it.

The sense of pride associated with Sol3 Mio is easy to understand: three lovely blokes with lovely voices, and they’re ours! But their second album comes with promises of something a little different, and it’s not. The only songs that get them out of the light opera rut are Ed Sheeran’s rousing Hobbiton special, “I See Fire”, and a “bonus track” of Coldplay’s “Fix You”.

That aside, it’s the kind of stuff that everyone and their mutt have recorded: songs like “Santa Lucia,” which has been covered by everyone from Elvis to our own Hayley Westenra, and hoary old pop songs like “Delilah”, which is given a treatment not so different from the Tom Jones version, just a bit more, uh… operatic.

It’s a road too often travelled. Oh, and pushing the voices so far forward in the mix makes the orchestra seem like it’s beamed in from a karaoke backing track.

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