Trust

Description

Trust is the third full-length album by the Finnish Eurodance band G-Powered (the duo of songwriter/instrumentalist/producer Kimmo Korpela and vocalist Miia Rautkoski), released on K-Tuotanto Records in 2010. The album was produced and mixed by Kimmo Korpela.

After five years of taking their dance music around Europe, this Finnish duo is releasing their first album in English. The pop end of the genre is not generally the most thoughtful or spiritual, so it is good to hear the pair pioneering and putting out lyrics full of worship.

The thing that most struck me was how similar Miia Rautkoski sounds to earlier Madonna, both in vocal timbre and the feel of the tracks. G-Powered won third place in the 2009 International Euro Dance Web Awards, and there is a healthy amount of melody here. However, even with break beats, the Europop sound carried on trance beats means that after a while the songs suffer from a degree of sameness that might disappear if they were stripped back and handled in other ways.

Highlights are the opening track, «The Dream», which has one of the stronger melodies and breaks for snatches of acoustic guitar; «Still with Me Today», where Kimmo Korpelo programmes low synth pulses from the start and some electric guitar adds some variety; and the driving «I Belong to You» (it’s striking how much difference some well-placed backing vocals can make). The more memorable title track is probably the album’s lead tune.

These fairly fluently-translated songs are mostly God-directed, with the occasional one aimed at an old friend or someone who blew success. There is a lot about dreams and living well. It is good to see prayerful songs also reflecting on life lived, rather than just praising. If you’re after some light European trance with Christian content, there’s not much else on offer, so this is worth checking out. [Derek Walker, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2011]

G-Powered have been making waves in the Euro dance scene over the past few years. This album sees them attempting to widen their audience venturing from their native Finnish language to record their first album in English. The duo comprises of producer Kimmo Korpela and singer Miia Rautkoski. Whilst this is their debut English language album they have previously released two albums in Finnish and certainly have the sound of a group who have refined their art and know how to produce great tunes. The production is excellent with each track having a great variety of instrumentation and beat whilst maintaining an almost euphoric atmosphere. The powerful, soaring vocals of Miia fit perfectly alongside the production and despite singing in a non-native language the lyrics are very clear. The majority of this album is high tempo pumping dance beats but there are some moments where the tempo is brought down a bit like on the on closer «This Day». The strength of G-Powered has always been in the atmosphere created by their music and with the added bonus of English lyrics this pop trance set sounds like it could connect with international clubland. [Andy Shaw, Cross Rhythms, July 2010]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/trust/369609740)

CD tracklist:

01. The Dream – 3:28
02. You Know It All – 3:43
03. Dark Land – 4:03
04. You Will Not Leave Me – 3:17
05. Who Cares – 3:32
06. Still With Me Today – 3:19
07. Give Me Wings – 2:55
08. I Belong to You – 3:41
09. Trust – 3:28
10. This Day – 3:45

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