Rating:
Genre:
Electronica
Release Date: 09/05/2001
Roger Sanchez's
First Contact is halfway to being an amazing album, but it's also halfway to being run of the mill. While the highpoints of the album display a bit of an identity crisis, the peaks are high enough that
Sanchez makes good on his house maestro reputation. But starting with the big beat crazy
Latin misfire
"The Partee," the album detours toward bland, repetitive dance numbers and relies too heavily on contributing vocalists who display little passion. The four standout tracks are in order starting with the opener. A quick analysis shows that
Sanchez crafts these eclectic nuggets from fruits that fall from many a varied tree.
"Computabank" mixes
Kraftwerk with a catchy, industrial
Front 242 meets electro charm.
"Another Chance" is touching and effortlessly pretty in its driving emotional sweep; it's the album's finest moment by far, as a sample repeatedly rises and drifts away.
"Contact" mixes flanged sampler madness and huge throbbing bass sounds into a
Daft Punk-worthy dancefloor anthem.
Armand Van Helden and
N'Dea Davenport contribute to the pleasant
disco diva soundscape of
"You Can't Change Me." The only other song to make a mark thereafter is
"Nothing 2 Prove," and it's really only because
Texas vocalist
Sharleen Spiteri adds a dose of bite. Outside these highlights,
First Contact feels too much like a paint-by-numbers
house/
disco/
trance album. It might sound like a cliché, but
First Contact is a fantastic album before it gets bogged down with bloated filler.
~Tim DiGravina, All Music Guide
;)
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