Adeaze: Always & For Real

By REBECCA BARRY

(Herald rating: * * *)



It must be one of the most hackneyed, misused phrases in music but writing songs "for real" is one Adeaze deserve to use. You can almost hear the Auckland-based Samoan brothers slapping their hearts with pride on their first album, a soulful, easy-listening blend of a capella harmonies and sincere lyrics.

Take first single and wedding favourite A Life With You, one of the many sentimental love songs that remain as sweet and unpretentious as their response to the news their album had reached the number one spot this week.

That was helped, of course, by fairly predictable covers of the Bee Gees' How Deep is Your Love and Eric Clapton's Tears In Heaven, but it's the least-treacly of the ballads that show the duo at their best.

Memory Lane and Love is True reveal a funkier side. The beat gives their velvety voices and occasionally taxing arrangements an instant pick-me-up, while traditional Samoan song E Paia shows there is more influencing their repertoire than a romantic self-help digest.

Although they risk becoming dated - their style harks back to the days of early 90s band Boys II Men - Adeaze have their hearts in the right place, and that should take them far.

Label: Dawn Raid