UrbanWire

It’s interesting, surreal and yet strangely satisfying how reality TV shows can propel complete unknowns to international stardom. Show in question? The Idol Series. The show has magically transformed Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Kurt Nilsen and Clay Aiken from zeros to heroes, and the latest to join the ranks is Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian.

Releasing his album titled Just As I Am in end May in Singapore and recently his single, ‘All I Need is You’, Guy Sebastian has surely made his name a part of every music buff’s pop vocabulary (though not as much here as the infamous William Hung, who can’t sing to save his life).

The songs in his album are a good mix of fast and slow tunes, accompanied with all the pronunciations and articulations, and not to mention a great deal of melisma. His first single, ‘Angels Brought Me Here’ is probably the song to best feature his vocals in the entire album. His voice hits the higher registers effortlessly, beguiling female fans along the way.

Another song that deserves mention is ‘All I Need Is You’. This song is very catchy despite the fact that it’s a tad cheesy, like when there is a little too much cheese on a slice of pizza and it makes you in one way or another lose your appetite. Somehow, this song summarises Guy’s audience-winning formula with its combination of funky beats, catchy rhythms and good vocals, a mix that appeals to both the record labels and mass audiences.

Other tracks worth your listening time include ‘Can You Stand the Rain’, ‘What a Wonderful World (cover)’, ‘My Beautiful Friend’ and ‘Just As I Am’.

‘My Beautiful Friend’ combines instrumentation consisting violins, pianos, and guitars with backup singers, somehow making this song both uplifting and inspirational. If Guy ever wishes to switch from pop to gospel, all he has to do is to change the words “baby” to “God” and he’s on his way.

You will probably not recognise the cover of ‘What a Wonderful World’ when you first hear it and will most probably dislike it. The funky beats, vocal dramatics when he whimps and screams and fast tempo completely drown out the original feel and classic touch of the Louis Armstrong original. But once you’ve acquainted yourself better with the track, you may find yourself switching off the lights in your room and grooving away to this cover.

The downside of Guy’s album is that the producers made it in such a way that the next few albums of his will definitely be better than his first, considering that there is still a lot of room to improve when his next album is cut. Of course this is to ensure the money will continue to roll into their pockets, as well as to prolong the shelf life of the Afro-hairstyle singer. The weird thing is, (or at least to me) some of the titles make the song less appealing to the listener even before they give it a shot, some of them are 3 Words, So I and i 4 u (yes, it was printed that way). Weird eh? You can almost write a short paragraph combining the song titles together.

Another hitch in the album is that most of his better songs are all mid to slow tempo, making him lose credibility in the area of versatility. Even though he attempts to sing the up tempo tunes, the uncatchy melody and the not-very-appealing titles like ‘i 4 u’ makes you wonder if the writers of the song wrote it to fill up the quota of 12 songs.

However, this doesn’t deny the fact that his first album is of a better quality than even Ruben’s or Clay’s, in terms of the range of singing and the mix of tempos. Guy Sebastian’s Just As I Am combines R&B, ballads, pop and hip-hop, making it a worthwhile purchase.