Arid has never been able to achieve the status of the umpteenth Belgian band that is doing well in the Netherlands. Arid was once presented as a newcomer to the list of K's Choice, dEUS and Soulwax, now it has to be concluded that the formation around singer Jasper Steverlinck has not been able to live up to this. Perhaps it lacked a dose of luck, because Arid's albums always excel in quality,
… especially in the vocal field. Steverlinck's powerful voice also stands out on the fourth album Under The Cold Street Lights. The sensitive, but also hard strokes are impressive. Arid has been around for over ten years and their music has hardly changed in those years, although this CD contains some electronica in addition to listening songs and guitar pop (think Coldplay and U2). This is probably the biggest problem: the songs do not sound modern enough to hitch a ride on contemporary trends and are just too meaningless to be timeless. (JE)more
