George Ezra - Waiting on Voyage (2014)

Waiting on Voyage is the debut album by twenty-one year old British singer/songwriter George Ezra, yet another in a long list of twenty-something year olds breaking through in this very in vogue acoustic-folk style. However, at the same time, this guy is quite different stylistically from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Jake Bugg largely thanks to his very distinctive singing voice.

George Ezra’s voice when you hear for the first time is a voice that you do not immediately think belongs to a twenty-one year old, and sounds more so like someone in their sixties, someone with years of singing behind them. With this in mind, I must confess that I don’t think I have heard a voice quite like this one on someone in the early stages of their career, and Ezra certainly has a voice way beyond his years. Sound-wise I would describe his voice as being a cross between Eddie Vedder and someone in the ilk of Robert Johnson, or other delta blues musicians, with its warm bluesy tone and deepness. It is this unique and very mature voice which more than anything ensures that Ezra’s music stands out within what is quite a saturated singer-songwriter market, and after hearing a couple of singles, made his debut album Waiting on Voyage that much more intriguing to find out if the songs themselves could match up to the singer.

Ezra’s music is very much acoustic-based (he uses a semi-acoustic guitar and occasionally a resonator) and contains a blend of folk, skiffle, blues, and pop. Yes the song-writing at this stage is quite simplistic and the music definitely owes a lot to Ezra’s unique voice and the overall sense of melody it portrays, but often when you have such a distinct sound in your armoury whether it be a distinctive guitar, or singing style, simplicity can work best, with complex arrangements or experimental sounds only working to distract the listener. With this in mind, at times the music on here does suffer a bit from over-production, with whoever is producing trying to give some of the tracks a modern pop kick to them, something which is totally unnecessary. Some of the tracks could do without the synths, sequencing and electronic backing as they do not add anything, and quite frankly do not work well with the style of music Ezra is playing.

So what tracks stand out on the album? Well the album kicks off with a great opener “Blame It on Me”, which contains some skiffle influences in the guitar playing and also has a great sing-a-long chorus, something most of the songs on here contain. “Budapest” is one of the singles on the album which began to get Ezra noticed in the music world, and is more a mellower folk track with a slight calypso feel to it especially in the vocals and guitar. It is on tracks like this one that you really get to hear the unique quality of Ezra’s voice and his very distinctive deep tone. “Cassy O” is the second single, and although lyrically it is a bit throw-a-way, it has a very nice country shuffle to it and does a good job in highlighting Ezra’s efficient rhythm guitar playing, a style that is quite experimental when it comes to different strum patterns. “Did You Hear the Rain” musically is perhaps the most interesting track on the record and begins with a very haunting delta-blues like moan, before Ezra begins singing a cappella in a deep bluesy voice which sounds as if it could have come straight from the cotton fields in the Southern states of America, it is truly something. The track then transitions into a bit of an alt-folk track full of mood and feeling in what is definitely one of the album highlights. “Drawing Board”, “Stand by Your Gun” and “Barcelona” are also other noteworthy tracks on what is a very varied album stylistically and one which keeps the listener guessing as to what will come next, with Ezra bouncing from style to style across each track. There are a few dud tracks on the record, namely “Leaving It Up to You”, “Breakaway” and “Over the Creek”, but on the whole these are the exception to the rule and do not really diminish the overall quality of the album.

Waiting on Voyage is a very interesting and eclectic first up effort from George Ezra. There are a lot of things going on here musically which stand out and the fact he is willing to move from style to style across the album is quite daring for a debut. At times the production does get a bit too much and sees some of the songs lose their focus a bit, with the production team going dangerously down the pop for pop sake road which tends to be employed a lot in this day and age. Despite this, there is definitely plenty to work with here and if anything his quite remarkable voice will ensure he has a future in the industry. It will be very interesting to see where he goes from here musically, especially as he begins to mature as a song-writer, while as the voice itself, maturity-wise is already there. 

A- 

- Sam 

Sam Cooke - Night Beat (1963)

Recorded in the ludicrously short space of three nights, Sam Cooke’s 1963 release Night Beat is a surprisingly powerful presence among the work of arguably the greatest soul singer to have ever lived. Compared to Cooke’s previous releases and electric live performances of the era, Night Beat is a deceptively titled and illustrated album that features ‘Mr. Soul’ at his most intimate, personal and melancholy.

Aided by some of the best session musicians of the era, Night Beat combines raw blues, soft rhythm and blues arrangements and gospel-style organs (played by a 16 year old Billy Preston) that all simply act as vassals for Cooke’s characteristically sublime, smooth vocals that are at times heart-wrenchingly emotional and powerful. The album’s A-side is particularly compelling, with the tracks “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”, “Lost and Lookin’”, “Mean Old World”, “Please Don’t Drive Me Away” and “I Lost Everything” being among the best of Cooke’s work, but the first half’s finale “Get Yourself Another Fool” is soulful blues at its best, with Billy Preston’s organ playing invoking the typically passionate aura of church gospel, Barney Kessell following Cooke’s verses with sublime, bluesy electric guitar and Cooke himself brilliantly inflecting the sorrowful sort of disillusionment after a breakup, with the refrain “Use me for a tool / Get yourself another fool”.

However, common for a pop album released in the early 1960s, Night Beat does contain obvious radio singles that distinctly feel out of place, the perpetrators being the B-side’s cover songs “Little Red Rooster”, “You Gotta Move” and particularly the closing track “Shake Rattle and Roll”, where Cooke almost sounds uncomfortable covering Big Joe Turner’s classic in the context of the album. Seeing as it was an industry standard at the time to prioritise and promote radio singles over album content, I can’t really fault it here – besides, they’re all perfectly enjoyable songs in their own right.

Even considering its slight unevenness due to the easily distinguishable radio singles, Night Beat is a captivating record, sharing the same type of sorrow and despondence as Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours, despite the arrangements of both releases being at polar opposites. The significant shift in tone on this album in a way acts as the archetype for Cooke’s later work, an obvious comparison being 1964's civil rights staple “A Change is Gonna Come”, a ballad tinged with sadness and optimism which uses similar arrangements as on Night Beat.

Don’t let the cover of Night Beat fool you with its zany, wonky 60s typeface, it doesn't do its content any justice. On first glance Cooke’s slight smile seems beguiling as well, but there’s definitely a hint of tiredness and sadness in his expression that becomes easier to identify after listening to the album. Night Beat is one of the truly unique early 60s pop albums that doesn't play like singles padded with filler, and is easily among the more impressive soul releases, and I daresay even blues releases. Fans of Sam Cooke’s renowned songs, particularly his singles, should visit Night Beat as their next port of call, an ideal night-time listen that contains a powerfully poignant side to 'Mr. Soul' unheard elsewhere in his work.

A

-Karl

Listen to Night Beat on Grooveshark

Mos Def - The New Danger (2004)

More adventurous but not quite as daring as its predecessor Black on Both Sides, Mos Def’s second studio album The New Danger demonstrates the Brooklyn rapper’s eagerness to once again bring together what he defines as black music under the banner of hip hop. And for the most part, he does a pretty decent job at it.

The New Danger continues more or less with the same production aspects heard in Black on Both Sides, but not completely. Where this album departs from its predecessor is in the different musical styles produced by live instrumentation. Musicians on the album include Black Jack Johnson (Mos Def’s side project band, which comprises of Living Colour’s Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish, Bad Brains’ Dr. Know and Parliament/Funkadelic’s Bernie Worrell) and blues guitarist Shuggie Otis. “Blue Jack Black” (which features Shuggie Otis) is one of the album’s standouts, as hearing Mos Def sing and rap over a straight up blues track is not only refreshing, but pretty darn cool. Black Jack Johnson also play some really sweet rhythm & blues, soul, funk and electronica inspired tracks, but they also delve into hard rock and heavy metal on more than one occasion, where the tempo of which just seemed to jar really badly with Mos Def’s flow. Thankfully these instances occur only a few times in the album, and generally the production is pretty solid, most notably on sample-based tracks such as “The Rape Over”, “Sunshine”, “Modern Marvel” and “Life is Real” (one of my favourite cuts on the album).

Lyrically, Mos Def isn’t quite as sharp as he was in Black on Both Sides, scaling back the politically and socially conscious overtones in favour of greater subtlety, along with a few tracks projecting a more feel-good, chilled vibe. (“The Rape Over”, a scathing critique of hip hop as an industry, is one exception) Vocally, Mos Def manages to adapt to just about every style pulled in on this album (except for the aforementioned hard rock/heavy metal tracks), with his vocal work varying from track to track, even within tracks – “Modern Marvel”, a superb 9-minute tribute to Marvin Gaye, features Mos Def singing, then speaking, followed by rapping (and one of the better verses in the album, too) about and reflecting on some of the social issues raised in the classic What’s Going On. If nothing else, Mos Def’s vocal work on this album just restates his ability as a singer, which never underwhelms.

Although this album does explore some pretty interesting territory sonically (in regards to hip hop, anyway), it just lacks the thematic coherence that was really apparent in Black on Both Sides. The New Danger may have a greater scope and more ambition than Mos Def’s prior work, but the execution doesn’t quite match it.

B-

-Karl