Customer Reviews

Turn It Around

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After Believe, it was going to be hard for this trance team to recreate another stunner, and they have missed the mark. One thing that struck me as odd right away is that Vanessa, the lead singer, isn't mentioned anywhere in the liner notes. I mean, yes she's on the cover, but her name gets no credit.

What is also a huge difference from Believe is while Vanessa led all vocals tracks on that album, she only does half the tracks on here. One track is sung by Nikola from Sphere, 3 tracks by Jan Loechel, a male member of 4 Strings and writer of their lyrics, and on a few other tracks, we have no idea who sings them because it doesn't tell you in the liner notes, and it is not Vanessa.

Out of the 5 best tracks on the CD, Vanessa sings none of them. I do not like their first single, turn it around, as it's too slow and the vocals are rather awkward sounding (although the Club Mix peps it up a bit). The two dance songs sung with male vocals are suprisingly excellent offerings, and I feel at least one of them should get an official release: Love is Blind and Euphoric Eyes. The 3rd song with male vocals is a ballad which I don't care for.

Let's get to the best track on the CD, track 9, Until You Love Me. It's catchy, great background melodies, and instantly strikes you upon first hearing it. One question I have is who the heck sings it, because it's not Vanessa and they don't tell you on the CD???

Anyway, the 5th standout track is Back to Basics, which is really an instrumental with sporadic vocals (not sure who again??) thrown in, and it's a damn good one.

If you take out the Intro and Outro, you have 14 tracks, and only 5 are exceptional. The rest are mediocre at best, with good background trance music, but less than appealing vocals and lyrics. A few tracks are real duds. I mean would you crank this CD up in your car and be caught dead singing along to "I Hear Dolphins Cry". This has to be one of the cheesiest vocal trance tracks I've ever heard.

As for the Ian Van Dahl Lost & Found vs. 4 Strings Turn it Around debate (they are both released on the same day), it's a no brainer, hands down win for Ian Van Dahl. That CD is much more solid with only a few sub par tracks. A complete 5 Star album. See my review on that one.

This one gets 3 stars from me, due to 5 exceptional tracks. The best track, Until You Love Me, is outstanding and as good as any on the Ian Van Dahl Lost and Found CD. You may want to buy this CD for these few excellent tracks.

i am a 4 Strings fanatic and they are by far my favorite artist so i like pretty much everything they produce
however, i was disappointed that the CD did not include "Take me Away" or "Revelation" or "Diving," in my opinion their 3 best songs
as other people have states i was also disappointed at the minimal amount of vanessa vocals and i think adding more songs with her vocals would have enhanced the CD
Best Songs on the CD:
All Around the World
Until you Love Me
Love is Blind (the first time i heard this song i didnt like it but the more i listened to it the more i liked until it became my favorite song on the CD, despite no Venessa)

but if you are a 4 Strings lover i would still suggest buying it

I'd like to second some of the other reviewers' reviews of this album. It really lacks the energy and the coherence of the previous album. The tracks in general are a little slower. The production quality is overall about the same, but it is just not as "listenable" as Believe was. The exception I find on the album is the "Club Mix" of "Turn It Around."

But if we think about that for a second, aren't we talking about "club music" here afterall? Are we under any pretenses that this is elevator or lobby music? I should think not. What we expect from this band, and from a second album is an equal or better effort at club music. House-ish, trance-ish, and anthemic. It's just missing on Turn it Around.

I wholeheartedly recommend Believe, but I'd steer clear of this one unless you find it used.

After listening to the first album, "Believe", there can be no mistake made about the hit status of such songs as "Take Me Away", "Revelation" or "Diving". Nevertheless, aside from these three songs, there was not much of anything going on on 4 Strings debut. Frankly, I felt sort of disappointed.... Yet having been convinced that not everyone is perfect, and yes, people CAN improve (their sound, their lyrics, etc.) I decided to give "Turn It Around" a chance....and boy let me tell you, I was NOT disappointed!!! Tracks such as "Turn It Around", the lead-off single, "Come Closer", "Crash and Burn" and "Living a Lie" are instant gems.... While the unbelievable trance quality of "Until You Love Me" (reminds me of Fragma) is just begging to be a future hit-single... Also what I feel makes the entire album edgier and vibrant, much more vibrant than "Believe", is the vast assortment of artists and moods that saturate the album. Despite the fact that "Turn It Around" does not comform to the sounds and rhythms of "Believe", it is nevertheless much wealthier and diverse in style.... something that will keep 4 Strings fans more than just mesmerized. . .

Turn it Around also happens to be the title of the single hit from 4 strings which many people into trance music will recognize. There are so many good songs in here that make it into one of the best vocal trance out there. Right after track
"Turn it around" which is excellent is "Come Closer" which is
just as beautiful and full of energy. Then there is "Living Lie" and it is more mellow. The one thing that surprised me was that even the male vocalist were good. I agree with other reviewers in that "Euphoric Eyes" is a very good along with a slow tempo "One Million Light Years" which has a romantic tone as examplified by the whole albums romantic theme and high energy, faithful to the trance genre. Beautiful voice and excellent synths to compliment the whole package.

First of all, yes this album is not all great. Second yes, the album does not even give you information or the lyrics of the song, and third VANESSA is LEAVING 4 strings! yup you read right, this is very sad and I think that once Vanessa leaves, the 4 strings will be gone for good. TO bad though because they were doing good!

One reviewer wrote 4 strings had their work cut out for themselves after their debut album "believe" and the statement is sadly true. The album focuses primarily on the trance sound that made them famous but jumps around to ballads and slower tempo tracks that could almost be considered chillout. As many reviewers pointed out project vocalist Vanessa is featured on the covber but only on 4 of the 16 tracks. It should be noted the group announced on their website she is no longer with the act.

Overall the mood is upbeat and standout tracks "all around the world" and "until you loved me" echo the euphoric trance sounds of first album "believe". On "all around the world" its hard not to get swept away with the wave of synths and beats that seem to literally move the vocals. I also enjoyed title track "turn it around" which is a little slower but has some really ace music behind it.

Different vocalists abound and male vocals show up on no less than 3 tracks, "love is blind", "euphoric eyes" and "one million light years". Of these three "love is blind" is the best track with its punchy beats, keyboards and looped vocals. "Euphoric eyes" isnt really trance music as it is more generic tribal. The less said about "one million light years" the better as it comes off as a really insincere and bland AC ballad.

4 strings did 1 slow song on their debut but here they give a handful which drag down the release. While acts need to grow and evolve it doesnt do well to release music outside of the musical genre you're famous for. The album has 3 slow songs, the aforementioned "one million light years", "free featuring sphere" and "Dolphins cry". "free" is an okay track with its slowly building synthesizers and down tempo beats. "Dolphins cry" is one of those tracks that is actually not that bad a track but suffers as the title is in my humble opinion terrible. The elemntary school lyrics really hurt this track which maybe reworked could be saved from the cheese factory.

There are a host of average tracks included on the album: "come closer", "living a lie", and "back to basics" which are pretty decent vocal trance songs but nothing amazing.

Overall it seems 4 strings released a rushed second album that has a few great tracks surrounded with filler. I wonder if Vanessa left to pursue a solo career halfway through which lead to the vocal duties falling to others. "turn it around" is a decent dance release but a disappointment for those wanting an album as spectacular as "Believe". I doubt we will see a 3rd album.

This album brings out the best talents from the entire team behind 4 Strings, its truly an amazing cd. Just to think 4 years ago 4 Strings came out with Take Me Away, Summer Sun, Waterfall, and Diving and they are still topping the charts. The drawback with this album is the abscence of the vocalist Vanessa, theres only 4 songs that she sings - the other tracks are done by other new coming vocalists. The thing to remember is that 4 Strings WAS a "project" like any other dance/trance group, but with the remarkable feedback from the 4 String fans, they have showed that they are more than a "project". The hardwork and hours of perfecting this album has definitely payed off - request 4 Strings on your local radio station and buy your copy today! Congrats to Carlo Resoort, Vanessa and the whole entire 4 Strings team on this great album.

Julio
Fusion Radio
www.fusionchicago.com

The music typically follows what most techno or whatever you want to call this genre of music being. It has a sappy song here and there and a swift moving beat. But nothing truly is outstanding about it. Yet the lead vocal on this isn't to horrible as techno vocals go.

Wow, I don't know what to begin with,i'll just put it this way, this would have been a better album that the first one if lead singer Vanessa Van Hermert was doing the whole voucals on this album, it's almost as if she dosen't excist in this album, and i have no idea who is that other female doing voucals and it's not really the same without Vanessa, it's like Iron Maiden without Bruce Dickinson although 2 diffrent types of music, and as far as i know that this band will be having a new singer and once this take place it won't be the same 4 strings i once liked due to the amazing voice of this young lady, music is excellent but you can scence that something is missing , i hope these guys realize it, this lovely sound if Vanessa is the key.