Good Evening - Nite Jewel

One review of this album that I read suggested that if Nite Jewel released this album in the 1980's, a spot on the soundtrack of Romancing The Stone (a film I love by the way) would have been all but a formality...and you can certainly see their point. It also covers the fact that Good Evening is another one of the long list of albums released over the past year or so that decidedly hark back to the 1980's.

In this case it's one of those albums of this ilk that most definitely sounds as if it WAS actually recorded in the 1980's - there are precious few indications when you are listening to this that it's a modern record. And therein will lie it's charm, or alternatively it's hideous kitsch-ness for the listener.

On the first listen through, most people would probably be in the latter camp and be unable to look past the vaguely ridiculous mid-tempo keyboard sounds and the baffling mumbling lyrics that at times you can hardly hear and most of the time definitely can't make out. Those that can persevere might find their rewards, even if Ramona Gonzalez, the person behind Nite Jewel, frustratingly seems more interested in the sounds she's making than making those sounds into "proper" songs.

It would be easy to say that with a bit of tweaking here and there this could have been something very good indeed, but perhaps that's missing the point. For all it's readily apparent faults, Good Evening is what it is, even if what it is might end up being described as pleasant background music without any real punch.