Elliot Yamin: Find A Way To Get This Album!
Written: May 19 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The first three songs are unbelievable.
Cons: A little on the slow side.
The Bottom Line: Elliot Yamin placed 3rd in American Idol Season Five, and now he's kickin' all kinds of booty. Welcome to the fray, man!
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| flamepillar's Full Review: Elliott Yamin by Elliott Yamin |
I didn't start watching American Idol until just this season (Season 6), so needless to say, when I started snooping around about the show's history, I found myself regretting that I hadn't gotten around to watching a year sooner!
Chris Daughtry would have been the biggest reason for that, and for weeks I pondered picking up his CD, doing all kinds of research, and in the process inevitably started to hear about Elliot Yamin as well. For reasons that I can't even begin to explain, when I found myself in the store ready to pick up Daughtry, my impulses got the better of me and I picked up Yamin instead.
The first thing I noticed about the music on this CD is that it's a decidedly more "urban" sound than what I was expecting from the guy whose most hyped performance of the Idol Tour was Nickelback's "Savin' Me" together with Daughtry. Initially I was a bit taken aback, but I thought well okay, I don't have enough relaxing music in my collection anyway. Might as well give this a go.
And wonder of wonders, as time went on, song by song started to creep out of the proverbial woodwork. And regardless of what genre you might be listening to, some vocalists have a way of transcending preconceived notions, intentional or not, that come with certain genres. When Elliot sings, he's not some canned, processed superstar; he's like a good friend just coming by to hang out and shoot the breeze.
There may be no better way to describe opener "Movin' On" than shooting the breeze. With a pulsing bassline and a funkified R&B groove, this song is like everything that the boy bands might have been, had their success not been predicated on sex appeal. Not that Mr. Yamin doesn't have sex appeal, but that's neither here nor there.
"Wait For You" is apparently the big single, which I sadly haven't heard on the radio yet. It's one of those ballads that is silky smooth like a Klondike bar, coupled with Elliot's tenderly aggressive vibrato. Here it is more obvious than ever that not only is Elliot a smashing vocalist, but he is dead serious about taking a quality hook and making it his own. I recently made a YouTube video in which I played this song back-to-back with The Backstreet Boys' "All I Have To Give" and Hall & Oates' "Forever For You" just to demonstrate that all three had the same hook. However, when listening to the three songs back to back, it's obvious that Elliot makes the most sterling use of it. The YouTube video can be found here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzOQCCLkTP0
Oh, but you think that's something? Wait til you hear "Find A Way". This song busted straight out of the box with an elegant piano line all doused in 7th chords and a chorus that's absolutely to die for.
The life we live for some is easy
And most of us just make it by
My mother worked so hard to feed me
It's a wonder how she never lost her mind
Those lyrics are simply a prime example of Elliot's down-to-Earth and general goodness as a human being. You can say it makes him a "mama's boy" or whatever, but there's nothing shameful about a little honesty, even if it stems from a story as typical as dandelions. The production here is out of this world, and the melody is absolutely gorgeous. If this song doesn't become one of the ten greatest singles of the year, I'm so driving into a telephone pole.
Well, I'm not going to go into extravagant detail about the remainder of the CD song by song. I'll be honest, the remainder doesn't quite live up to the ungodly hype created by those first three songs. I would have liked to see more upbeat stuff towards the end other than "Alright", which is monotonous as all heck. Fortunately, there is a song just before it called "Free" which nearly matches the level of uplifting sincerity exuded by "Find A Way". "I'm The Man" stands out as a strong ballad that could quite easily become a single itself, thanks to a simple melody and Yamin's trembling vocals.
All in all, Elliot Yamin has been well worth the time. It's rarely enough that the humble man finds success beyond his wildest dreams. Yamin has not only found all his dreams coming true, he is a dream come true. When a guy can make me talk like a freakin' 16-year old girl like that, I guess that really does mean something.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
flamepillar
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Timothy Bishop
Location: Neenah, WI
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