BOBBY THURSDAY IN THIS UNIVERSE ALBUM MEMENTO MATERIA RELEASE: APRIL 1, 2008 REVIEW: APRIL 25, 2008

Bobby certainly ranks among the most professional bands in this particular brand of retro fashioned electronic pop music. The natural thing for them would be to be to turn up in the Eurovision Song Contest, where they would have fair chance. Frontman Julian Brandt is probably no stranger to this, as he has performed in the Swedish ESC with Lustans Lakejer.

On "Thursday in this Universe", Bobby are more polished than ever, and the songs are full of hooks and majestic melodies to drive home the melodrama of Julian Brandt's appropriately sensitive vocals. The album seems meticulously crafted for radio rotation, and honestly, little else. The stylistic ingredients are all perfectly in place, but what about personality? I hear no soul, no real feeling, nothing in the way of substance for me hold on to. Single track "The Ghost of You Remains", dedicated to member Torben Doe's dead father, is a small exception.

When Bobby's flawless homage or travesty of new romanticism has faded into silence the emptiness is no greater than it was when the album was still playing.

MATTIAS HUSS