Welcome to the EvO:R Independent CD Reviews Section.
I would like to take a few minutes to introduce ourselves to everyone. The EvO:R review section features reviews from various independent musicians that submit material for our consideration.

I wanted to let you know a little about our review teams collective thoughts on music. It's important to let the people that we review know how we think of their music and how we listened to their creations.

First of all, we strongly believe that if your music stinks then the world should know about it! After all, you have the nerve to charge as much for your stuff as the majors do so it better be pretty damn good. If your material is good, we'll be glad to tell the world. I We will hold nothing back! That is a promise.
The EvO:R CD Review Team

Arrows Made of Desire – Songs That Sell Out
Hmm?!? I hear a lot of teen angst here. To be blatantly honest –I don’t get it! I have very little to go on here as far as origin of the artist, etc. But from what I have been able to pull up –it appears that this group is based in Beijing, China.

Below is text from Arrows Made of Desire’s MySpace profile.
“Joewi Verhoeven wears his influences lightly for someone just the other side of teendom. Born of Dutch and Chinese parents, brought up in Holland and re-locating to Beijing for Mandarin study and film school, he has managed to find the time to soak up the post-grunge tunefulness of Soundgarden whilst being at home with the pre-blues minstrelsy of Mississippi John Hurt, entering guitar world via a Nirvana portal like so many other early teens he's ended up more between Arthur Lee and Roddy Frame rather than totally sold on the easier world of post-rock noodling abstraction.

All to say that Joewi (say "joowi") is more about tunes than most rock musicians these days.” I am going to do the best I can to describe this CD and give you my honest opinion. As a disclaimer –I have never reviewed anything like this and I have no basis for giving the reader examples from other artists to explain what I am hearing.

So here we go!
Joewi Verhoeven completed this record almost completely on his own playing almost all the tracks himself. He did have some help from various players and his co-producer (legendary BBC DJ) Steve Barker and engineer Yuli Chen. From my standpoint Joewi is proficient as a musician on guitar, bass, keys, and some percussion. I’m not thrilled over the vocal work but he can sing. His voice just doesn’t appeal to me.

When I listen to music, I try to hear a lot of things. I do hear some music out there that resembles this sound but I am not a big fan. Quite a few of my friend’s teenage kids listen to this style. Unfortunately, it just reminds me of a bunch of confused teens that are not sure about their sexual orientation. That said-let’s move away from style and talk about musicianship, creativity and production.

The production is fair to midland but nothing to write home about. Joewi is a decent musician. Understanding how all the parts go together and to do it all yourself is half the battle and it’s a battle that most who try -fail. Joewi has done quite a nice job. Creatively speaking –Songs That Sell Out is a winner. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of dichotomy here because creative music rarely sells out.

I do like the fact that Mr. Verhoeven has picked a direction. This is very important because he does have a sound that is all his own. Because I see this as more of an artistic venture than what the artist might hope to be a chart topping one, I am going to use single words and phrases to describe it- Jazzy, Spastic, Avant Garde, ethereal, weird, sometimes dissonant, sometimes dramatic, rarely calm.

Song Samples from the CD
All song samples are from Bands My Space page.

/ For-itself / Shared Dreams/ Race/
/  Dependency/ I need a Mirror/ Bear it Calmly/
/ Misanthropy/ The Revelation/ Heroes Hit Bottom/
/ Let You Know/ Denouement/

Conclusion:

I would probably recommend this record to all those teens and post-teens with unisex haircuts.

Jimmy Dee Caterine...EvO:R Reviewer.

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