Dozenz – Be Someone (Album Review)

Today’s review will revolve around an artist that has been featured on this platform before, called Dozenz. Their previous release was met with positive acclaim, but will their current release match the hype of the previous release? Let’s find out, but before we do, let’s get a refresher on Dozenz as an entity.

Dozenz consists of the powerhouse duo Saleh Hamed (Sol Farah) and Ahmed Jamali, pushing boundaries in the UAE’s alternative rock scene. They push boundaries by fusing aspects of songwriting and production within the genres of alternative rock, cinematic electronic elements and emotionally raw storytelling. They continue to evolve, creating music that transcends borders and speaks to the universal struggle of becoming something more.

In the new iteration of their evolution, they have come up with an album titled ‘Be Someone’, set to be their most compelling work to date. It’s a genre-blurring fusion of alternative rock, electronic textures and anthemic songwriting- being a bold declaration of identity, resilience and the fight to carve out individualism in the world.

This body of work is influenced by acts such as Radiohead, U2, The Chemical Brothers, Imagine Dragons and Linkin Park. It is set to be a cinematic and deeply personal record, weaving together haunting melodies, immerse synth landscapes, and soaring guitar-driven choruses. Each song on this album also marks as a sonic reflection of the artists’ personal evolution.

I’d say, upon listening to this album, it does generally deliver with a lot of action-packed and stadium motif-like rhythms, melodies and harmonies. If you’re into the likes of artists like Coldplay, this is definitely the album for you. It has an edge at times with certain slivers of production techniques that do cross into the domain of innovation. The album does display certain cross-genre quirks in tracks like No Talking (Just Love Me) and Say My Name that have aspects of electronica and cinematic music.

Another plus point of the album is the mastering and the stronghold that the vocalist used in most of these tracks have. All of the instruments are accented and accounted for quite well, and the vocalist’s tone does suit the anthemic feel of some of the songs intended for a crowd within the album.

My biggest issue with this album personally is the predictability of some of the songs of the album, as well as the lack of motivic variation with some of the arrangements. I feel like the world has an arsenal of anthemic rock under its belt, and a lot more needs to be done to reimagine existing structures in order to make it appealing for broader and newer audiences. Moreover, the album only starts to pick up within the middle to last range of songs, making it so that as a listener, you might be put off by the flow of the first few songs.

However, that’s just pitted against the entirety of music. With its current marketing and brand sans the claim for futurism and innovation, I think the album does deliver proficient anthemic and emotionally charged music, and that’s part of the basic constituents needed for most to understand and keep your music in their hearts. If you do have a certain preference for this style of music, you would also cherish it more. I do think a lot of work needs to be done conceptually to truly elevate this album into something revolutionary, but otherwise, it passes the mark of proficiency.

SCORE/Excellent: Dozenz returns with a new album that will have you wishing you were in a stadium setting, chanting along with some of the more emotionally palpable songs. Even though it lacks in variation and true uniqueness, the quality and the mastering is truly superb, with no sound completely out of place. If you’re into acts like Coldplay and M83, this is definitely the album for you.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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