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I was in love with Roger Sanchez. No, really. Unconditional love with his music, his DJing, his style, remixing and production skills, his reputation as one of the good guys, the way his songs basslines turned my insides to jelly, his graciousness when I met him and on his radio show, how he supported new talent and gave them the boost they needed to get into orbit around or with him (think Scumfrog), the energy of immpecable house music he emanated... everything I knew and experienced of Roger Sanchez had me head over heels for many many years. So it was with a huge amount of anticipation that I put on his latest and 2nd artist album. His first album, First Contact, was and still is an incredible opus. Not pandering to any particular style or cliché, it was unique, intriguing, and daring, with many tracks different what he would DJ in a clubs. Still years later it proves to be an amazing body of work. OK so with that heady introduction, you might have guessed that I'm building up to my intense and total disappointment with this, his latest artist album. It sounds like... like everything else I've heard before, and many years old at that. I'm imagining that this is what is big in Europe and the UK perhaps? Or the style of what gets sent to him and requested on his rather mainstream radio show? Can you tell I'm confused? When did Roger Sanchez start producing what sounds like cheesy diva vocal commercial dance music, where disco runs into pop? I've listened to the CD now three times through, and can't bear to pick it apart track by track. It is of course a good quality production (can you tell I'm stretching to find something decent to say about it) if you like this kind of music, but... I mean, are there really people that like this kind of music any more? Other than the guy that puts together the Billboard 'dance music' chart and maybe some wedding or cruise ship DJs? Ouch, I know, but I'm seriousLY smarting from this letdown from my onetime favorite. Roger, what happened?-- review by Claire Maxwell
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