Universal
New Age, 1998

I don’t know what compelled me to purchase Ronan Hardiman’s Solas, since I don’t know anything about him. But I do like the snippets of Love Song played by the music store I was browsing through. And the CD cover art for Solas is beautiful.

Ronan Hardiman’s music is something of a hybrid of jazz, dance, and new age. Unfortunately, this guy doesn’t seem to be able to vary the rhythm and pace of his music, despite his impressive career path, and most songs are just one hook or a segment of music being repeated again and again and again and again until I scream for the pain to stop. The snippet I love, from Love Song is just that: a woman throatily singing “Love you, let me love you, let me love you, always” to three catchy lines of music, followed by a musical bridge, and Mr Hardiman has all this constantly looped for almost seven minutes of torture. After the fourth minute, “Love you, let me love you!” is not cute or even funny anymore.

Time to learn some few new tricks, Mr Hardiman. There’s only so much repeating a few clever hooks can do before it becomes an agony on the senses.