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Love, Niecy Style
  Love, Niecy Style  
  Recommended if you like:
- Luther Vandross
- Lionel Ritchie
- Kool and the Gang
- Stevie Wonder
 
Review
Deniece Williams 'Love, Niecy Style' [Shanachie]
 

When you hear the name Deniece Williams, a lot of you probably think of her 1984 top chart song, “Let’s hear it for the Boy.” She now emerges from her long hiatus with her current album, “Love, Niecy Style” a cover album of some of the greatest R&B and soul hits. Produced by Bobby Eli, “Love, Niecy Style” showcases Deniece Williams’ strong vocals covering songs such as Stevie Wonder’s “If you really love me,” Kool and the Gang’s “Cherish” Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much” and Angela Bofill’s “I’ll be Sweeter.” Cover albums can be quite difficult because listeners will either appreciate it or loathe it. Doing cover songs might give the impression that the artist simply ran out of good writing material and creativity. Unfortunately some listeners might sense this when they hear cover albums like Deniece Williams “Love, Niecy Style” however, Deniece Williams’ vivacious and piquant voice prevents listeners from skipping tracks. Tracks such as “This time I’ll be sweeter” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free” allow listeners to encapsulate Deniece’s devotion to her music. Interestingly, the tracks Deniece Williams covers in this album are not only top ten hits but are also her personal favorites. This album is good for those quiet evenings when you want to reminisce about the older years of R&B and soul music and there is no doubt that Deniece Williams definitely helps you remember.

Dwight Barrett [Just Soul]

Songs From Black Book
  Songs From The Black Book  
  Recommended if you like:
- Glenn Cunningham
- Stevie Wonder
 
Review
Gary King 'Songs From The Black Book' [Hear Me Sing Records]
 

An exciting and enjoyable 13-track debut album by Samoan Gary King awaits the listener, which is produced by Nate Barnes and Gary. All songs are self-written except “What Will I Do” which is co-written by Andy Meixner and “She,” co-written by Kwame Jackson and Gary also provides vocals, keyboard, piano and backing vocals. The opener is a friendly little tune entitled “White Blip On My Radar Screen,” about a person who comes in and out of his life, with Gary never knowing where they are. The second track “What Will I Do” is a song about intuition and starts with some pleasing acoustic guitar work, Gary’s voice suiting the simple melody, which flows throughout the track. Next song hears Gary saying I don’t want to be “Missing U 2 Long” and I particularly like his voice on this funky/jazzy track. “Victim of Ur Love” follows with Gary’s obvious enjoyment of singing the song and with trumpet accompaniment – it gives it a polished feel and is a pleasure to listen to. You can hear Kwame Jackson providing the subtle rapping on “She” a track about a giver of love who expects nothing in return, a giver of hope, an inspiration to us all, and a fighter. “All the Love in the World” follows, a number with the lyrics “I don’t want all the love in the world, without you loving me.” “Baby (I’m a Better Man)” is next, Gary singing falsetto in this heartfelt track and you hear Gary saying thank you to someone for loving him, crying out he’s a better man for knowing them, the electric guitar giving strength to the flow of the groove. “Crayons” with trumpet sounds sees Gary throwing back to his childhood and how it reflects now in his current life and “Lady Love” settles you down for an easy listening, finger-clicking track, which glides smoothly into mid-tempo pieces. Synthesizer based track 10 - “Winter Eyes” leads us beautifully into the next one called “Hopeless in Love.” This song & the next being particular favourites of mine, the first being a simple track, whose lyrics determine its ambience. The type of song you’d like to hear live with a full-blown choir singing & swaying in the background in a wave of spirituality. “One of the Forgotten” flows soulfully along in an inspirationally elevating melody and last track “Climb Your Mountain” with electric guitar, stirs and uplifts making it a fitting finale to the album. Following his intuition, Gary has delivered a true sound of himself as an artist with expressive and heartfelt lyrics. Through the words on the album, you travel with Gary through a lifetime of love and experiences, blended with impressive musicianship. You feel the album must have taken a long time to do, because of the power of the result. An ingrained love of music is delivered with passion, which envelops you in a treasure trove of jewels. If you like melody and meaningful lyrics, this is a CD for you and I look forward to hearing more from this soulful artist.

Tracey Cope [Just Soul]

Lin McEwan
  Lin McEwan  
  Recommended if you like:
- Polly Gibbons
- Bonnie Raitt
- Mavis Staples
 
Review
Lin McEwan 'Lin McEwan' [2917 Records]
 

This self-entitled album is Lin’s debut, self-produced with Chris Gibson. As you can see from the CD cover, Lin is a beautiful lady who is also gifted with a sultry, bluesy voice. I would describe the album as soulful, bluesy rock. The first track “White Roses” introduces you to Lin’s low, raspy vocals and is a strong sounding opener. Then on to the next song as Lin covers Randy Newman’s track entitled “You Can Leave Your Hat On” which is well sung in a bluesy style. Next track is Sara Lynn Beck’s song “Excuses” leading us onto Noam Weinstein’s “Ships Crashing,” - a beautifully powerful, yet smoothly sung track. The next songs “Over” and “Can’t Get Near You” have a rock feel to them, leading us into the piano led track “I Could Lie To You” featuring John Rochette, whose theatrical sounding voice blends well in this duet with Lin. John also plays drums on the album and this is a fine tune, which sits well on the album. Onto two songs Lin wrote, which are “Unexpected” and “Alias” – this particular track having an almost haunting feel to it, soulfully sung & well written, suiting Lin’s bluesy vocals and being one of my personal favourites on the album, along with “You Didn’t Love Me Back”, also written by Lin, which is a track about unrequited love, sung with subtle drum & guitar accompaniment leading us onto the lively number called “Hope You Had Your Fun” which ends the CD. A good band supply bass, keyboard, drums and guitar and compliment Lin’s consistently strong, individual vocals. It’s always good to hear a proper band on an album. Listening to the overall sound, I would encourage Lin to write the whole of her next album, as the tracks she wrote stood out to me the most. With less cover tunes and more of Lin’s own material, it would definitely earn another star on the rating.

Tracey Cope [Just Soul]

House Party
  House Party  
  Recommended if you like:
- The Main Ingredient
- The Isley Brothers
- The O'Jays
 
Review
The Bar-Kays 'House Party' [I.M. Records]
 

Legendary popular R&B soul group Bar-Kays have been producing music since the 1960's and continue to thrive today. In their attempt to make a comeback they present their latest album "Houseparty." A number of tracks on this album are produced by Phalon "Jazza Pha" Alexander (James Alexander's son who is also the founder of the Bar-Kays.) This album has an interesting mix of tracks as it attempts to capture their audience from all ages - something that a few listeners might find un-likeable. Coming back and bringing back the soul is one commendable thing but coming back and attempting to bring back the soul by singing on a crunk beat might make listeners question if they were desperate for material, exposure or they were convinced that this would be a great idea. Tracks such as "Holla If You Like That", "We Cant' Stay Together" (duet with Shirley Brown) and "My Everything" provide some grassroots to their known soulful sound and genre, however tracks like their opening track "Sho-Nuff" and "What Goes n-Da-Club Stays In Da Club" where lyrics such as "shake it like a salt-shaker" echo through out the bridge will make a number of listeners shake their heads instead. Part of this problem can also be that the Bar-Kays are such a classic group that "blinging" them out and reciting lyrics similar to that of the Ying Yang Twins not only makes them look totally out of place but out of character. Despite this so-called creative idea the production quality nonetheless is great and tracks like "Superstar" and "Glad You Are My Lady" support this. Bar-Kays voices are still strong and soulful as it was in the yesteryears. "We Can't Stay Together" feat. Shirley Brown is probably one of the memorable tracks on this album for its lyrics, voices and production. If you remove the "bling-bling" "crunkness" and other stuff from this album you will discover Bar-Kay's true talent that hasn't changed.

Dwight Barrett [Just Soul]

Love Sweat Fears
  Love Sweat Fears  
  Recommended if you like:
- Bobby Valentino
- Frankie
 
Review
daRome Bentley 'Love Sweat Fears' [Soulective]
 

A native from Oklahoma who has opened for acts such a K-CI and Jo Jo, Next and Joe, daRome Bentley presents his three-track EP. His first track, "Tell me why" is a nice melodic R&B track where he reminisces on a past love and questions why things aren't as they use to be. daRome's second track "I wish" a more slower sensual track, is about daRome wishing for his lover back and wishing things could be the same and his third track "Already know" is a reminder to his woman that she should already know how he feels about her. daRome's harmony vocals stand out in this EP, which often coagulates well with the beats. This is especially heard in "Already know" where his harmonies sound similar to those of Michael Jackson's harmony vocal arrangements on "Butterfly". This three track EP are just a glimpse of what this potential artist has to present to his listeners.

Dwight Barrett [Just Soul]

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