Required Listening 2004 #5: Caribbean Soul-Pop for the Grown and Sexy
Written: Jul 25 '04 (Updated Dec 21 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quintessential summer album. Great production, a bunch of fantastic songs. Has personality.
Cons: Shaznay's wierd 'Left Eye' singing voice does annoy sometimes. No 'Never Ever'/'Pure Shores' crossover classics.
The Bottom Line: Not quite the masterpiece the wait suggested, 'Open' is none the less a charming, unusual soul-pop album with great touches and an understated, homemade feel.
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| kookytree's Full Review: Open - Shaznay Lewis Movies |
One of the biggest surprises of the 2003 British Rich List was the revelation that Shaznay Lewis is one of the country’s richest pop stars…despite not having put out any solo material. She was the founding member and key songwriter of girl band All Saints, the soulful, self-consciously cool answer to poppette puppets the Spice Girls, with whom she had a string of number ones in the late-nineties before their notorious infighting led to their dismantling as a group. So how did Shaznay manage to collect a personal fortune of £8 million from just two albums and eight singles? Four words- ‘Never Ever’, ‘Pure Shores’. Both songs are rightly considered two of the most dynamic pop songs of the last decade, and both sold over a million each in Britain alone. Shaznay wrote both of them. Bingo!
This self-earned affluence seemed to deflate Shaznay’s post-Saints creativity; other than a role in Keira Knightley flick ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, she’s been out of the public eye ever since they broke up in early 2001 due to a bust-up over a jacket (not even kidding). Tabloid double-act the Appleton sisters were the first Saints to go solo, putting out chill-out album ‘Everything’s Eventual’ together in 2003 to mixed critical reception. However, the generally accepted ‘talents’ of the band (honey-voiced Mel Blatt being the other, who is still best friends with Shaz and lends recognisable backing vocals here occasionally) maintained frustratingly low public profiles. When Mel flopped with an excellent, sensually mystical debut single ‘Do Me Wrong’ in 2003, Shaznay was the only All Saint left to put out any solo material. Some questioned whether her creativity had dried up completely, and it was generally assumed that she would simply live a comfortable life with her riches, never exciting the charts again.
So it was a pleasant shock when ‘Never Felt Like This Before’, the lead single from Shaznay’s debut solo-album ‘Open’, hit music stations in summer 2004. I admit, the first time I heard a clip of the song, I was gutted. THIS is what we waited three years for!? I wanted fireworks; racing bridges, thumping choruses, a slab of searing, soaring pop genius. What I got was a perfectly lovely, likeably low-key declaration of infatuation. It slowly crept into mine and the general public’s consciousness, hitting both the top ten and the Radio 1 A-list to become one of the songs of the summer. It’s generally indicative of the rest of the album, being as it is breezy, summery, floaty and lushly melodic. As a song about falling in love, it works beautifully, charming the listener into a sense of well-being in the head and a flush of goosebumps down the back of the neck. In particular, the winsome stagger of the chorus somehow bottles the giddy euphoria of love with flighty accuracy. Shaznay’s voice sounds almost babyish in besotted awe for her subject, but the song is never cloying, mainly due to the wisely unfussy acoustic setting and the wide-eyed, wry honesty of the lyrics (‘I’m into you like a badass tune’). It’s a nice song, soothing without being boring, and is so desperately likeable you want to ruffle Shazzer’s hair and give her a big giggly hug.
‘You’ follows in ‘Never Felt Like This Before’’s footsteps, and whilst it’s one of the best songs present, it also doubles as proof that Shaznay will live in her most famous songs’ shadows for a good while still. That it’s a track about things reminding one of an ex is deeply ironic, for it’s immediately reminiscent of the muted electronics of her biggest hit, ‘Pure Shores’. It shimmers with the dusky melancholy of Dido without being soporific, and Shaznay puts in by far her best vocal performance.
What the lead single doesn’t reveal, however, are the inclusive Carribean influences sprinkled over ‘Open’. ‘Mr Dawg’, ‘Now You’re Gone’, and ‘Heart Made Me A Fool’ all throb to an organic reggae feel that is key to the album’s identity. What I like about ‘Open’ is that it forms a coherent whole- unlike the vast majority of her RnB/soul contemporaries, Shaznay hasn’t just thrown four singles and some filler onto one disc. Instead, a real sense of personality and recognisable ‘sound’ is achieved through songs that melt into one another without actually sounding that alike. Indeed, whilst ‘Never Felt Like This Before’ indicated that an unobtrusive, deeply personal subtlety would be the album’s key focus, ‘Open’ is often a Hell of a lot livelier than that.
‘Nasty Boy’, for example, is immediately reminiscent of All Saints’ hip-hop shuffle, pounding with a piano-tinged bass-beat and Shaznay’s coyly coquettish refrain, ‘Are you a nasty boy, boy?’ Even better is the clear single contender ‘Radio’, a trashily punky dance jam with menacing grunts of synth and a wobbling, faintly Arabic computer-game finish. This is the song that fully realises Shaznay’s talents as a pop songwriter- the aggravated hook surges through the track like a sugar-rush gnashing through the bloodstream, and the swirling, snarling bridges are designed to vex the listener’s adrenal gland for no reason other than that’s what pop is supposed to do. "Heart Made Me A Fool" and the Basement Jaxx produced "Mr Dawg" are both pleasingly messy and busy, between them boasting triumphant trumpets, growling motorbikes, Kanye West vibratos, wailing sirens, a trilling telephone, and finicky, funky synths that achieve raucously cheerful wholes. The production of the Basement Jaxx track in particular is inspired; a song about a headache-inducing suitor who simply won’t p!ss off, the Jaxx create a real sense of a head spinning without actually giving the listener a headache themselves. "Mr Weatherman" is less innovatively produced but just as addictive, due solely to an rowdily upbeat hook:
“Where does the Sun go, when I look out of my window?
Why does the rain fall, only when I think of you?”
‘Butterflies’ features Shaznay at her most boisterous, downright telling a guy that she’s ‘got him hot’ and threatening to ‘put on a freak show’. It again uses her secret weapon of likeability to good effect; the ‘shoop shoop’ doo-wop backing vocals, old skool beatboxing, and James Brown sample all creating a fantastic sense of celebration that’ll make even the most miserable of summer killjoys crack a smile and nod their head appreciatively.
In fact, the only song that doesn’t work is ‘Dance’- It’ll grow on you but you’ll hate yourself for it. It’s way too choppy, directionless, hopelessly two-left-feet inducing, and features an awful ‘comedy’ rapper (for a nice change, the only guest appearance here). Not only that, but Shaznay yelps rather than sings. Her voice will divide opinion- whilst it has a kooky, childlike feel to it (think the way Left Eye rapped, only sung) that is refreshingly different to the booming gospel/slickly caramel norm, it’s weirdly nasal- it genuinely sounds like a peg is clipped to her nose throughout. This could well annoy, but I personally feel it only adds to this album’s just-that-little-bit-different feel; whilst the lyrics are pretty standard throughout (her strengths as a songwriter have always been in melody and hooks, not the words themselves), ‘Open’ just doesn’t sound like any other soul or RnB album currently doing the rounds. The production is smart, there are some brilliant songs, and it’s an album that proves the devil is in the details, from dancehall lilts to distorted backing vocals. Saying that, it’s unlikely ‘Open’ will blow you away on first listen; instead, it’ll grow on you like an unassuming friend, enhancing your summer but probably not defining it. Despite that, it's a sunny, sassy, vivacious little album to fall in love with and to, providing a welcome change in these Ashanti dominated times.
Track Listing and Ratings:
Intro/Open- N/A (I love this, though)
Dance- 2/5
Never Felt Like This Before- 5/5
Mr Dawg- 4/5
Heart Made Me A Fool- 4.5/5
You- 5/5
Mr Weatherman- 4/5
Butterflies- 5/5
Nasty Boy- 4/5
Radio- 5/5
Now You’re Gone- 4/5
NOTE: An advance track called "Don't Know What To Say" was cut from the album just before release after universally negative feedback from reviewers. Concerning Shaznay's lack of confidence in her songwriting abilities, it's loss is the album's gain- it's a truly rubbish song that only weighed 'Open' down.
Recommended:
Yes
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kookytree
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Reviews written: 52
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mais lindo que michael jackson!
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