Norwegian review, Gilbert O'Sullivan, and Salem's fans' ages...

1: Another Norwegian review

In Livecity Magazine http://www.livecity.no/Anmeldelse/?p=BlogDetail&ublid=2995, reviewer Jon Vidar Bergen awards the album 6 out of 10.

"In the sequel he is now Salem and he has moved much from (the debut album's) old soul and Stevie Wonder-style. This is more straight and well-arranged pop music, still with a lot of keyboards....First single "Astronaut", which is great, catchy pop with stunning vocals.... Almost as good is "One Of The Others." On "Now's The Time", he unusually rocks à la Oasis, without forgetting the good melody. "Roxy" is inventive pop of the best 70s style (Toto, 10cc, Supertramp). Astronaut is a more varied album than the debut, but unfortunately, not better."

The reviewer recommends the album if you're a fan of Jason Mraz, and...Gilbert O'Sullivan.

2: Gilbert O'Sullivan

The Gilbert comparison is very interesting: whenever I've played Salem's music to anyone of my age group or older than me, they have all commented on the similarity of Salem's style to Gilbert O'Sullivan - if you're not familiar with Gilbert, he was a hugely successful singer-songwriter in the early 1970s (my childhood years!! :o), he wrote and sang very catchy piano-songs with extremely clever lyrics.

I don't know if Salem is familiar with Gilbert O'Sullivan's music or not, but it's interesting to see the reviewers also making this comparison.

3: Age of Salem's fans?

With only two weeks to go till I'm at Salem's Gothenburg concert, I'm beginning to wonder if me and my partner will be the oldest people in the audience!! It's interesting to see that Salem's music appeals to a much younger audience in Sweden, whereas I feel that in the UK he would probably appeal to the over-30s, as a lot of young people over here are only interested in r'n'b, dance music or emo-style bands and are too narrow minded to appreciate real talent. I'm glad that there are young people in Sweden with good musical taste, but I hope there are maybe some older people (30-40s age) going to his live concerts too!!