Album Title: Beginning Again
Artist: David Raleigh
Reviewers Name: Julian Gorman
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Title of Review: Positive Love Ballads

Review Summary:

The music of David Raleigh is very respectful and has a sweet honesty that is quite enduring to his message, which if it can be summed up, is love. Strong friendships, bounding, unity and a positive outlook for the future are all common themes that make his poetry unique for its hope. A balladeer proclaiming his love to the world!


Review:

There is something very familiar about David Raleigh’s style of music. This balladeer has a powerful voice that one could easily hear on Broadway, highly stylized but not a character voice, it falls nicely on the ears. His music moves people to laugh, cry and most of all find hope in the desperate situations life has to offer. With David’s piano and back-up keyboards alone, the sound is full and bright. All this combined with an intentionality to spread love and hope, Beginning Again is an album that shouldn’t be missed.

The piano and keyboard are both very well played and work well together. The teamwork of David Raleigh on vocals and piano, Nathan Leigh Jones providing additional keyboard accompaniment, perfectly compliment each other’s musical sensibility. None of the music sounds over-produced or synthetic. The instruments sound natural and pleasant. There isn’t much creative exploration going on here, the melodies are comforting, simple and beautiful, but rarely surprising or really new. Singing along is fun. Much of Beginning Again echoes 90’s R&B and soft rock, but higher quality sound.


Some songs feature light vocoding and vocal enhancement, but all appropriately and obviously without use of any auto-tuner nonsense; on Safe he sings “I’ll go over the limit, I’ll jump from the sky, drive off a cliff, run into a fire, howl at the moon, I’m gonna laugh in Death’s face.” Mellow flanger and echo give the sound a tight style when combined with impeccable keyboard and sequencing production. The verse vocals of Safe remain raw, which is the perfect contrast. And you have to love that talk-box at the end! Too many artists use vocoders as crutches instead of wings. Raleigh’s singing ability is wonderful and definitely good enough without the effects, so he has artistic license as a bona fide vocalist who is only enhanced by whatever device is elevating his voice. There are quite a few “pop-artists” who could learn a thing or two from these tastefully done vocals…Kanye, Cyrus, silly boy/girl bands, please take note and if you can’t sing naturally, get into spoken word or get off the stage. Singers must take back the spotlight from these mechanically voiced charlatans! Too many great artists go unnoticed due to the force of the corporate pseudo-musicians. David is always in tune, stylized with a range from cool calm on songs like The Only One to fierce alternative intensity with Here I Am. Occasionally Raleigh’s riff boarder on the smooth syncopation and crooning that made Usher famous; though poetically no where near as trite or sexually driven.

Raleigh treats the subjects of his songs with a tender loving respect that a storyteller gives their characters, taking them to grand proportions in Gratitude, singing “I look at the sky and see your face in the moon.” Lyrically the music is typically straight forward advice on love, life and relationships. Mostly positive, the poetry is appropriate snogging theme music with enough contrast in the ballads that it doesn’t get too mushy. On the active side of socializing, there is Get up and Dance, akin to a mello sort of house. It is nice to see so much energy from a balladeer. Even though there are tough life lessons to learn, they are never hindrances to his outlook.

However many of the lyrics are repetitious, riddling off colloquialisms of love too often. Phrases like “Night after night” and “My Life” seem to be mantras. More ways to describe love would improve the philosophical aspect. The repetition in the chorus of Ready, Willing and Able just annoys me a bit, as rhyming the same word is a pet peeve of mine. Anything else is acceptable, even not rhyming is more interesting, in my personal opinion. That being said, the songs are really catchy and easy to sing along to within the first few listens. There is some definite pop potential here for a more mature audience, but many of the chivalrous values, unfortunately, seem to in one ear and out the other for most. Still, it is refreshing to here such a smooth sound that isn’t raunchy or distasteful at all. The poetry is PG-13 at its worst, making it fairly family appropriate.

The musical values of David Raleigh are very respectful and have a sweet honesty that is quite enduring to their message, which if it can be summed up, is love. Strong friendships, bounding, unity and a positive outlook for the future are all common themes that make his poetry unique for its hope. The musical style is simply that of a classy balladeer proclaiming his love to the world. Although there is nothing really unique, the pop-goodness will keep these tunes on the tip of your tongue and these hopeful messages in your heart.


Review by Julian Gorman