Singstar Kent

Maybe this review should have been written in my blog. Probably. But I thought it would be a nice exotic thing to have amongst the reviews here at the International edition of Gamereactor. Because if you are English speaking you are unlikely to have heard of Kent, and if you have heard of them you probably forgot about them a long time ago.

Kent actually tried to make English edition of a couple of albums about ten years ago. They wanted to be big in America and all of that. They never made it, but their Swedish albums rank among the best selling albums during the last 15 years in Sweden and neighbouring countries (where they sort of understand Swedish).

Kent can be described as a Swedish U2, but not as openly political and a bit more whiny, lately they have moved away from guitar riffs towards more of an electronic sound.

I have enjoyed Kent ever since their fourth studio album Hagnesta Hill, released way back in 1999, and own all of their albums except for the last one (Röd, translates simply to Red), which in my opinion only has one worthwhile track - Vals för Satan (Din Vän Pessimisten). And that's where the problems begin for Singstar Kent - somehow Sony have managed to pack the collection with seven tracks from the latest Kent album. New fans might like that, but this choice comes at the expense at a number of classics that actually would be great "sing-along" songs.

After all a Singstar game should contain the songs we are all a bit ashamed about knowing the lyrics to. En himmelsk drog (Heavenily Junkie) and Saker Man Ser (Things She Said) are two old songs with videos that should have been in there. But looking over the song list I also realised that what I liked about Kent wasn't necessarily the songs that were released as singles and got music videos (after all, these are the songs you can expect in a Singstar release), but rather some of the longer album tracks, b-sides and such.

When it comes down to it, there are perhaps 6 or 7 tracks on Singstar Kent that I'm going to be sing (or screaming) this summer with my friends, and that is very disappointing. The tracks I'm likely to sing the most are 747, Chans, Dom Andra, Frank, När det blåser på månen, and Vinternoll2. That's six. Vals för Satan (Din Vän Pessimisten) isn't a great song to sing along to (but still a good track), but I'm sure some of my friends will sing Om du var här (Iiiiif youuuu weeeere heeeeere), and Kräm (så nära får ingen gå) - two songs I'm not a big fan of, but that live up to the "sing-a-long" to the songs you are embarrassed to know the lyrics of creed. Oh well, who am I kidding, I'm going to scream along to those ones whether I like it or not.

But ultimately Singstar Kent is poor value for your money. There is a XMB theme, and some exclusive live footage (that replaces videos for some of the later tracks), but not really a lot of extras for fans. That's why even as a Kent fan your money is better spent at the Singstore.