Michigan - Ultimate Sky

As familiar to many Michigan won Memento Materia's competition Quest for Fame a couple of years ago and the first prize was that they recorded the album 'Graceful and in Sin', elegant synthpop and the record really was my taste. Michigan is now back with their second album 'Ultimate Sky' and have, just like Depeche Mode did after a couple of years, tried to bring a taste of guitar into the production.

To a certain degree you are able to recognize Michigan's earlier sound and I'm grateful to that. The tracks "Control of Me" and "A Ride in Time" have still the same style as the songs from the first album. Unfortunately the bands attempt to do it a little bit more rock mostly sounds like a bad version of Jon Bon Jovi mixed with synthpop, which I'm not a bit keen on. It's true that the band had some inlays of guitar in their first production, but not even close to the same amount in "My Own Denial" for an example. Still it's nice to hear that the band has not lost their ability to do hum-along friendly melodies.

Is this an attempt by the band to evolve and renew themselves? Do it again, and this time, do it right.

This review was written 2004 and initially published on Neurozine.com Jan 01 2004