release date: Aug. 27, 2007
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Rune Nissen-Petersen, Saybia
label: EMI Music Denmark - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "On Her Behalf" - 2. "Eyes on the Highway" - 3. "Angel" - 4. "Godspeed Into the Future" - 7. "Pretender"
3rd studio album by Saybia, who has timed up with Danish producer Rune Nissen-Petersen, although, still blending melodic soft rock and pop / rock in a mix with acoustic ballads and more uptempo chorus-based rock tunes the style very much seems unchanged compared to These Are the Days from 2004.
Tracks #2-4 make up a collection of very strong compositions but the rest doesn't quite match this high level, but what's worse is that the band has been met by a declining interest from music fans, and despite being well-received by most critics, the album became the band's so far least successful release in terms of sold albums - only reaching 15.000 sold copies nationally, where it also peaked at number #2 on the national albums chart list. And it secured the band top-20 entries in Norway, Switzerland and in the Netherlands, where the band most likely experienced greater success than they did nationally.
Eyes on the Highway is by no means a bad album - it's just as unfocused and incoherent as its predecessor. The band members play with instrumental skills, but they still sound like they are too much inspired by others. You listen to one of their songs, and immediately ask yourself, what artist and song it sounds like 'cause it's really hard to point to the very essence of Saybia without mentioning 4-5 familiar names, which is kind of sad. Also, this band doesn't exactly release new albums every year - you have to wait some years, which should leave them time to make something coherent and original. And frankly, if you put together the band's last two albums, you actually have enough great songs to make two great but also very different albums, but instead we have two fine and yet much alike releases pointing in too many directions to call them great.
Tragically, the wife and daughter of Huss were involved in a traffic accident, Dec. 2007, in which the wife was killed and the daughter hospitalised with severe injuries. This of course came to have a significant impact on the band's further engagements. In late summer of 2008 Saybia officially announced to take a planned hiatus, although they played their scheduled Autumn concerts.
[ Gaffa.dk 3 / 6 stars ]
