D. Overall Album Review

Overall Review

Its always difficult to sum up what we think Mission 4 Project was. So much was involved in the making of the album and its promotion. Ice Angel and I were not expecting this project was even possible. I mean, 4 guys playing instruments in one album? Really. How can they possibly pull that off?

Fan's might be blind to the very essense of marketing as the main motive. But we can't be. These are RS hottest guys. They represent a cross-section of the desires of the fan base. You can't get a combination more lethal than this.

I heard of a Grammy project called "Seven". I previously discussed the aspects of this project. So, probably Mission 4 Project was launched earlier to counter this mammoth affair. So far, RS fell short in countering credibility. The marketing motive was too powerful and blatant to mask with a penny's worth of credibility.

Am I saying that Mission 4 Project was mere fluff and no substance? Yes. If you read Ice Angel's (I was too disapointed to even bother writing a song by song review) song by song review and see our respective ratings, our disappointment with the album clearly shows. Rushing a release of an album combining 4 guys who haven't played together before has drastic effects on quality. I was not surprised that almost the entire album is composed of songs which sounded awfully familiar.

So, they made them play instruments. I have no doubts about their ability to play instruments, to play them live and to sing songs live. But they are forgetting that in the end, what matters is the music and the delivery. If a song is delivered on a contrived note, without any of feeling and honesty, then the singer is insulting music as a whole for music is an expression of human emotion, not a marketing tool. What you have is a piece of contrived, assembly line trash meant to satisfy the demands of the market.

Am I saying that Grammy's "Seven" has credibility? Nope. I have no doubt about Grammy's intentions and motives when it comes to releasing music lately. Success and growth has strange effects on companies. Very strange effects indeed. I think there is no more piece of contrived motive than using your best and highest earning musicians to earn more money. I think that's the sickest piece of motive. Using their talent and their creative genius to trample the very few competition that is left able to compete with you. But that's what everybody in the music business does. Oh well.

Mission 4 Project has its share of some creativity and musicality. I found it in their solo songs. I guess this means that the 4 of them weren't meant together. Or maybe they should work longer and see if they are meant for each other. I do have some ray of hope. RS should try pairing up Voy and DOME. There is some potential in them as a duo. Have James stick to what he is best. He is slowly developing to become the next Thongchai McIntyre. As for Joni, more voice lessons.

There are songs that when you listen might just grow on you. "Chop", "Kwarm jing khong sai lom", and probably on a good day (like the day I will get a 4.0 GPA) "Aok hak ma rak ga phom".

So that's it. No hard feelings to the fans of Joni, James (especially), Voy and Dome. We are just doing our job.