Akdong Musician impressive on debut album

Akdong Musician
“PLAY”
(KT Music)

Akdong Musician, a teenage duo from Mongolia that won the audition show “K-Pop Star 2” last year, has made its much-anticipated debut with the studio album “PLAY.”

The 11-track album features the siblings’ unique interpretations of everyday experiences that anyone can relate to.

Despite their young age, their compositions demonstrate musical maturity and are marked by relaxing melodies and acoustic colors. The male singer-songwriter, Lee Chan-hyuk, wrote and composed all the songs and even arranged them.

The first title track, “200%,” is a refreshing and bouncy song about love. Its impressive chorus delivers groovy guitar rhythms alongside Lee Soo-hyun’s pure, distinctive vocals. “It must be L.O.V.E. / 200 percent sure of that / I want you, I mean really,” she sings with ease.

The second title track, “Melted,” is a more mellow, folk-pop melody that begins with a somber piano line accompanied by light guitar chords. Akdong Musician compares ice to today’s adults, singing, “Why are they so cold? If they melt, a warmer song will come about …”

Other tracks include “Artificial Grass,” which compares artificial grass to those who do what they want in life, and “On the Subway,” a calm composition about a local subway scene which Akdong Musician calls a “mini version” of today’s world.

“Give Love” is a bubbly song about asking one’s lover to “give back” some love. The duo sing playfully on “Hair Part,” about a girl who becomes lovelier when she parts her hair differently one day.

(jiyoung.sohn@heraldcorp.com)


Ledisi wows with latest album

Ledisi
“The Truth”
(Verve Music Group)

Despite multiple Grammy nominations, being one of Michelle Obama’s faves and having a voice that is among the most beautiful you will hear today, Ledisi still hovers far below the radar of music’s mainstream listeners. Her latest studio album, “The Truth,” probably isn’t going to change that, but it should: It’s a gem that deserves to be heard.

Ledisi’s voice is a multifaceted jewel that gives the album much of its sparkle: She’s bold but never brash, scats without overtrilling and can curl your toes with the bending of a single note. Even when she’s giving someone the emotional heave-ho, as on “Like This,” you’ll be more mesmerized by her performance than the pathos of the situation: If only all relationships could end with a Ledisi soundtrack.

Ledisi wrote all but one of the songs on “The Truth,” a rich blend of grown-folks R&B -- sensual, soulful and heartfelt, without the oversexualized content, brand placements and ridiculous lyrics. On “88 Boxes,” she sings about the pain of a union ending. The title track is another sweet-sounding song with a bitter message, as Ledisi comes to terms with a love that has long lost its bloom.

But it’s not all sugarcoated gloom. If Ledisi sounds alluring while singing through bitterness, she’s irresistible when she’s doing the wooing, which she does for a good part of the album with songs like the up-tempo “Blame You,” the funky “Rock With You” and “Missy Doubt.” The album’s best moment? “Lose Control,” on which she almost outdoes Beyonce with this sultry bedroom romp. It will surely make you do what the song title suggests. (AP)


McBride offers her take on soul classics

Martina McBride
“Everlasting”
(Kobalt)

Of all contemporary country singers, Martina McBride seems the most well-suited to interpret classic soul tunes. The four-time Country Music Association female vocalist of the year has shown repeatedly that she can wail with sass and find the depth in emotionally complex material.

Still, on her new album, “Everlasting,” McBride begs comparison with such giants as Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke by taking on their most potent performances and material. Working with producer Don Was, who brings an understated R&B pulse to the songs, McBride leans on vulnerability and purity of tone rather than the growling, rapturous release of the originals.

McBride presents several impressive performances, turning Little Walter’s “My Babe” into a funky, sexy love song and Fred Neil’s “Little Bit Of Rain” into a tender treatise on separation that lightens the dark tones of versions by Linda Ronstadt and Karen Dalton.

That said, these takes lack the fierceness of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” or the ecstatic joy of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” and Diana Ross on The Supremes’ “Come See About Me.” (AP)