Erik Oberg - Pam & Lee's Cafe

Hear The Track Here

It might surprise you to know, despite the sparsity of tracks on this musicians page, that I first reviewed one of his tracks as I moved my reviews to Soundclick from another site back in early 2003. So despite being around on Soundclick at least as long as me, he still manages to have a grand total of three tracks on his page. Exotic Tuesday (September 2003), nothing then until Prosperous Dude (July 2008) which didn't have any of the slight flaws of its predecessor and gained a Must Have from me on that basis of that., Erik was obviously delighted at this achievement because (lazy armpit that he is) it's taken him almost a year to deliver the next track. So, three years between Exotic Tuesday and Properous Dude, and now one year gap between that and this new track. Hopefully then next one will come in six months, but enough of my carping, lets see what we have here...

As much as I was blown away by the professionalism and competence of Properous Man, a lot of the praise came because I felt it was a strong song in and of itself. With my hand on my heart I fear I can't say any such thing about Pam & Lee's Cafe. Don't make the mistake though that I don't like it, I do but probably for all the wrong reasons. It was obvious to me even back in 2003 that Erik Oberg was going to be a different prospect because he stood out at the time and this was when Soundclick was probably at its creative peak in terms of artistic activity. To be sure, we haven't seen years like it since, nor are we likely to.

So its pretty much a given that I wouldn't have much to say about Erik's performance and/or production ability, the man learned those lessons a long time ago and he knows he can reach a certain standard without really straining himself. That, frankly, is my problem with this track. I doesn't sound as if Erik is putting himself into this track very much at all. Oh it's certainly likable as a slice of Euro-rock-pop and I know there are many people who would like it a lot. However, for this reviewer, this is a bit of a lazy track hampered - I feel - by its overt Euro-rock which to my ears sounds incredibly dated. More to the point though is the feeling that the musician was pretty much marking time with this track because I've definitely heard better from this musician.

Recommended Euro-poprock.