Glenn Meling
(All You Can Do)
Originally from Norway, Glenn has spent his entire life moving from town to town, country to country. Apparently, he has yet to live for more than a year in the same place. A bit of a ‘free spirit’ then, I guess.
In addition to all his travelling, Glenn has also committed the vast majority of his adult life to the making of music, having performed as part of a band and also as a solo artist. It’s slightly strange then, that having sampled all these experiences and experienced all the ‘change’ in his life that this single release seems to have been so influenced by the sound of U2!
Or perhaps not. On reading one of Glenn’s blogs, he makes mention of performing a U2 track in his ‘live acoustic’ set. His My Space page also boasts one of his ‘Top Friends’ as being Daniel Lannois, who has produced a couple of U2 albums.
Perhaps I shouldn’t go so far as to say that Glenn stands accused purely of plagiarising the trademark sound, but he is sailing pretty close. ‘All You Can Do’ is a pleasant enough little song, opening with a shuffling, slow ‘drum ‘n’ bass’ rhythm and overlaid with a single, simple clear and clean guitar line. The vocals have that slightly husky and hushed tone of Bono as they progress the fuller sounding chorus with added backing.
It’s really pretty catchy and if it were not for the obvious similarity to a generic U2 song, then it would have had plenty more respect. I mean, it’s certainly not even better than the real thing and despite all his travels, I would say that Glenn still hasn’t found what he’s looking for, but if you can separate the music from your mind’s image, then this is certainly worth a listen.
(See! Two can play this little game, you know!)
Self- released on 1st February 2010 and available via www.glennmeling.co.uk
Colin Jackson
