Picture a space age Jim Steinman production -- complete with synths, anthemic choruses, guitar hero solos, and bombastic Bonnie Tyler-esque singing -- and you're not far off from the 2008 release from Dearestazazel, Be Mine. Led by singer Peter Armstrong (who has a knack for shape-shifting his voice to sound a lot like a female), it's difficult to pin down what era of popular music the group fits into. Sometimes they sound like a prog metal band and at other points a vintage '80s-era new wave act; they also sound custom-made for the teenybopper/American Idol/sweet 16/roller-skate party set. But either way, you can't deny that the group certainly possesses an impressive amount of talent to pull off this hard-to-discern style, as songs such as the party-hearty album-opening "Sex Is a Sin" as well as the disco-fied "She Sells Sex by the Seashore" and the synth rocker "Lovely Lovely" all showcase Dearestazazel's strengths. Either way, just about any of the songs on Be Mine would have fit perfectly on an MTV playlist from 1983, introduced by Nina Blackwood. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi
