Last night I did something I rarely do - I took unsolicated advice from the clerk at the record store and bought a CD that I knew nothing about based solely on a stranger's recommendation.
The CD: The Magnificent Tree (2000) by Hooverphonic. Well, I love, love, love the loungey, yet string heavy track Mad About You. I dig the lead singer Geike Arnaert's voice. This CD is a bit similar to Zero 7 (one of my favorite new bands), but at least on this offering, they seem brighter and happier than the morose and somber (yet very talented) Zero 7 folk.
Check out this quote from a Magnificent Tree review:
"Classic embryonic vocalic beauty from Geike Arnaert still carries the translucence of the band's signature ethereality"
Hmm...will I ever write like that? Anyway, good tip and a good find. I hadn't known my collection was lacking in signature ethereality until now...
So then, I took a recommendation from my faux cousin Erik (same last name, no relation) and picked up The Way I Feel by Remy Shand. While I pride myself on being quite knowledgable about music, the circumstances regarding this CD are comical. Erik was playing this CD while we were working, and so I only heard vague snippets of the songs, and only glimpsed the cover. I assumed that Remy Shand was an African or possibly Indian woman and the CD struck me as being kind of an ethnic- world type thing. Well, I bought it, went home and listened to it:
It is a GREAT soul album, and Remy (who is a 23 year old Canadian man for God's sake and is the songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer of the CD) sings a lot like Prince. In fact, it really feels like a retro-soulified Prince album. So, after my bout of foolishness, I really recommend this CD- which was the Juno winning Best R&B/Soul Recording Of The Year. Where have I been?
Allow me to quote a review regarding my favorite track: "the literate neo-classic soul vibe of The Mind’s Eye". Literate neo-classic soul vibe. Wow.
And thanks to Erik for hipping me up to this one.
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