As this year’s edition of Melodifestivalen, the most watched program in Sweden, draws to a close, several albums are being released by the artists involved. This month, escXtra has the privilege of reviewing the much anticipated 2nd studio album from Ulrik Munther.
Fans of Melodifestivalen will be familiar with the name as Munther came 3rd in Melodifestivalen 2012 and yet again will compete in the Final this year.
With thanks to Universal Music Sweden, we’ve had the pleasure of listening to the album in its entirety. We hope to give you an idea of what to expect from this sophomore release!
The album opener is Munther’s entry for Melodifestivalen 2013, “Tell the World I’m Here”. A slightly extended version as compared to the one which is being performed at the contest. A pleasant way to begin the album and is followed by “Crash Test Dummy” and December 2012 single “San Francisco Says Hello” which gives a much bigger insight into how the rest of the album will sound. The former is a simple pop rock track with a catchy hook and nice lyrics in the chorus tells of Munther’s relationship problems. The latter has a slower tempo but remains a simple pop rock track telling his lover that he will see her when he comes back to Sweden. “Glad I Found You” is less heavy on the instrumental and sounds great in the acoustic version that was uploaded in the last few weeks. The real highlight here, in my view as well as several others since the record label used it as the album preview, is “Requiem”. It contains the only swear word featured in the album but is a very nicely written track which builds and doesn’t disappoint!
The second half of the album builds upon the sound that is established early on and although tracks such as “You&You” use a different instrumental arrangement to the rest, it still stands out as a good track. The title track “Rooftops” is similar to Requiem in the way it builds from nothing but sounds very much like the rockier sound that worldwide sensations One Direction have used on their latest release. “Symphony” is the only track that remains at a slower tempo throughout. It’s a welcome interlude between two strong and faster paced tracks. “1000 Years”, “I Think I Love You” and “845″ are the final three tracks on the album. They’re not bad but it’s clear they have been placed here to give a nice rounding off to the album. “1000 Years” is an innocent pop rock love song about Munther’s relationship, “I Think I Love You” continues along the same but uses a faster tempo with more drum beats, a piano melody and synth chords used in the chorus. The addition of the electronic sounds here is clearly influenced from the writing of Erik Hassle. Finally, “8:45″ details that every morning at 8:45, Ulrik sees the girl he loves. It’s exactly what this album needed to finish it off as it’s a pop rock song containing all the elements used throughout Munther’s second release.
Summary
“Rooftop” builds on the sound that Munther released back in 2011. It was clear from the 2012 re-release of his self-titled début, in the addition of “Fool” and “Soldiers”, that he wanted to take his music towards a more of a rocky style without alienating the pop side.
Another point to feature is that Munther has really matured with this album, not just in terms of sound but with the fact that his vocal is naturally much more lower now. This has given his entire album more of a grown up feeling and it comes across well!
It’s clear that the use of new songwriters has had a positive impact upon this release but there’s a feeling that the first release was not bad enough that it needed such a different team on this new release. A combination of both old and new writers, in our opinion, would be really great to hear on future releases. That being said, this album contains writing from Tony Nilsson & Fernando Fuentes (“Requiem”), Christian Walz (“You&You”, “Symphony”) and Erik Hassle (“I Think I Love You”) and they have produced some really superb tracks here.
We should also mention that Ulrik Munther has co-written every track except “Symphony” as he himself continues to improve as a songwriter with these new outside influences!
Some personal favourites of ours included “Requiem”, “I Think I Love You” and “You&You”
Overall, the album gains a 4/5 rating from us at escXtra.com.”
“Rooftop” is now available on iTunes and physical format in Sweden.
Once again, a big thank you to Universal Music Sweden for allowing us to conduct this review.
Reviewed by Nathan Waddell & Danny Ni
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