IranGaam (Iran)
2005 (1384)

Khashayar Etemadi, one of the post-revolution era’s first POP-stars to appear after Khordad 2nd 1997 and as a Dariush sound-alike, broke through via his vocal-performance in Maryam Heydarzadeh’s popular ”Mesle Hichkas”. Although once an artist with frequent and tight album releases, with years the gap between Etemadi’s albums has increased and today after almost 2,5 years of semi-absence he has composed and produced an opus entitled “Aasheghi Harki Harki Shod”. Artists collaborating with him on the album are Navid Sepehr, Maryam Delshad, Pouya Kasra, Taraneh Mokaram, Arash Afshar and Saeid Khalifepour. The collection features 8 tracks and is released on IranGaam.

Starting off with an upbeat Arabo-Andalusian fare leaning back at times towards the 70’s POP-sound a la Shabpareh, ”Talafi” is a rather pleasant album-opener!

The ”To Azize Delami” fever has, as we have witnessed, plagued both the LA-industry and the domestic Iranian counterpart! ”Raghse Bid” is the perfect manifestation of that, a very lovely song that just SCREAMS ”To Azide Delami” beyond its choir-schablon! Even Khashayr’s ornamentation has assumed Manosur’s!

Next comes the title-track “Aasheghi Harki Harki Shod”, a CONTINENTAL HOUSE tune with a twist of RETRO-DISCO and an overtone of Turkish POP-sound! Very close to what we experienced on the Mansour sound-alike Nader Meschi’s album, but here in a less refined version!

”Dardesar” is a BALLAD in a traditional Etemadi-style! Melodramatic and Retro-Romantic with a generic recitation as the knot that ties it all up.

And yet another specimen of the traditional Etemadi-style, ”Aatish Baazi” is an upbeat and dramatic fare with the lushness of the 80’s grand-orchestra and a very subtle Turko-Arabesque hint! Rather ”demode” but most likely a treat for the hardcore fan of the man.

With an initial beat reminding of Shadmehr’s ”Adamforoosh” the style of the previous song takes on a more prominent Turko- Arabesque aura and radiates much stronger than its predecessor!

The last original song on the album is ”Rasme Zendegi” another BALLAD with the Etemadi ”signum” and a Greek undertone! If you are a fan of the 70’s and 80’s ballads, you’ll probably detect a few familiar fragments in this lovely track.

“Aasheghi Harki Harki Shod” ends with an instrumental version of ”Raghse Bid”.

This is a rather typical Khashayar Etemadi album. Almost innovation-free, but still of a good and consistent performance-quality which will please his older fans but hardly recruit new ones! Etemadi’s music has never changed per definition, but the time and circumstances have! The music that sounded great back in the relatively completion-free 1997-2000 era is today merely average in comparison with the new arrivals and rivals on the market!

Artistic Performance: ++
Artistic Ambition: -
Commercial Potential: +
Technical Quality: +
Aesthetic Presentation: --
Ethical Adherence: +++
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