Solar Fake – Enjoy Dystopia (Album – Out Of Line)
Genre/Influences: Dark Electro-Pop, Future-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Sven Friedrich will always be linked to Dreadful Shadows and Zeraphine, but for more than ten years now his Solar Fake band is gaining more and more recognition. “Enjoy Dystopia” is the sixth studio album of Solar Fake, which is also available as a special edition featuring multiple remixes.
Content: This work takes off with a bang! The opening song is a powerful and rough sounding Future-Pop like track. ‘Power’ definitely appears to be one of the keywords to describe this album. The songs are all driven by an irresistible energy while on top you’ll clearly hear the melodic touch of the artist. The song also features “This Pretty Life”, which was the title song of the EP announcing the new opus. Both last songs are somewhat calmer and dreamy-like.
+ + + : Solar Fake always has had something particular; a kind of Electro-Pop song you can’t compare to another for being too powerful to be classical Electro-Pop. The songs have something rough and unpolished, but yet melodic and carried by elevating choruses. “At Least We’ll Forget”, “I Despise You” and “Trying Too Hard” are some of the heaviest songs. I also have to mention “Arrive Somewhere”, getting us back to Future-Pop.
– – – : I was less convinced by the aforementioned last songs creating a kind of anti-climax. Another song, which couldn’t totally convince me is “Es Geht Dich Nichts An”, which however is a special track as it’s the first Solar Fake song sung in German.
Conclusion: Solar Fake strikes back with what I should define as a ‘menacing Future-Pop’ album.
Best songs: “At Least We’ll Forget”, “I Despise You”, “Trying Too Hard”, “Arrive Somewhere”, “This Pretty Life”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.solarfake.de / www.facebook.com/SolarFake
Label: www.outofline.de / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel
About Solar Fake
Solar Fake is the band of singer Sven Friedrich, also known for Dreadful Shadows and Zeraphine. “Enjoy Dystopia”, the band’s sixth studio album, followed the November 2020 single “This Pretty Life”, which also appears on the album, and was released via Out Of Line on 12 February 2021. Discogs lists Friedrich’s chronology of Solar Fake albums back to “Broken Grid” (2008) and “Resigned” (2009), through “Another Manic Episode” (2015) and “You Win. Who Cares?” (2018).
Sven Friedrich discussed the band’s approach in a June 2021 Click Interview.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
