Another recommendation

I can't have a music blog and recommend artists without mentioning CHEEZY KEYS. They're extremely talented, versatile and decent guys (which I can account for, having met them) Cheezy Keys are, from left to right: Anders Kjepperud (basso), Morten Bergheim (tenor), Kjærand Moe (baritone), Hans Petter Moen (tenor) and Kim A. Hagen (tenor/countertenor). They met during a production of Grease at Chat Noir, Oslo in 1999 and startet singing together in between rehearsals. Since then they've featured in other show productions, written and performed their own show, performed at numerous TV shows, guest starred in films, and contributed to the national Eurovision final three times - twice as contestants and once as responsible for the intermission entertainment.

It's hard to put Cheezy Keys into a specific genre. They bounce from showing off technical brilliance in acapella performances, to dancing wildly over the stage in drag - and often combining the two concepts of classically oriented singing and humour: In a show they did a sketch about supermarket clichees and the beeping from the tills suddenly transformed into the intro of Schubert's Ave Maria.

Maybe it's not so strange after all, because in a way they were all connected to the classical world before they met. Kjærand was an educated classical musician, Anders and Kim sang together in St Halvard boys choir when they were kids, Hans Petter has studied musical theatre in London and also studied ballet for a year or so. An earlier member of Cheezy Keys, Mads, is also into dancing and has been doing some choreographing after he left the group.

In the program for their latest show "Finn Fem Feil" they explain their unusual reportoire like this:
"[..] All we know is that music and humour make things look brighter, [...] and that's why we want to give you these two things tonight, to make you feel like the wonderful person you are. With or without faults."

I for one love the combination and hope they continue to write music and perform shows. Rumour has it that an album's on the way (another to add to the list of must have CDs) so let's cross our fingers :) Cheezy Keys' web site is in Norwegian only, www.cheezykeys.com . To see and hear them sing, check out these links:
Unchained Melody live - http://www.cheezykeys.com/video3.html
Bohemian Rhapsody live - http://www.cheezykeys.com/video4.html

Quiz!

what is this? A) New adverts for Armani suits B) Westlife's new image C) "the 5 hottest men of the year" feature in women's mag

Answer: Neither! The correct answer is, believe it or not, opera singers. Except somewhere along the way, they were "discovered" by pop producers - they recorded some schmaltzy ballads and Italian versions of English pop songs, were sqeezed into expensive suits and marketed as a boyband and a pop hunk. The result - Il Divo (left) and Vittorio Grigolo.

Il Divo have always puzzled me in the sense that I can't believe that 4 men who can actually sing, more or less, have such a constructed image. And then recently I found out that the concept of Il Divo was invented by Simon Cowell, the man behind Pop Idol. They were put together just like Louis Walsh put together Take That and Boyzone - "you're the cute and shy one, you're the ladies' man, you're the dark, mysterious one etc". The biography on their web site describes it as "Il Divo finally came together in December 2003 after a worldwide search with rehearsals and recording sessions taking place immediately after." It goes on to claim how the four members all have different backgrounds, though all of them except the French Sebastien are TRAINED opera singers who have years of stage experience. Carlos has played lead roles in La Traviata, Madame Butterfly and La Boheme. David has toured with several opera companies in Europe and America. Urs has sung oratorios and performed regularly with the National Opera in Holland. (Sebastien is the only self-taught singer, according to his biography, and performing with Il Divo interrupted his work on a pop solo album). Reading about those impressive merits, I have to think "hello!! if these people can actually sing REAL arias from REAL operas, why don't they record a REAL classical album?" It seems to me to be a total waste of talent - just so that Simon Cowell and those people can make even more money.

The story of Vittorio Grigolo isn't much better. He too has an impressive merit list; even more impressive than Il Divo if you ask me, having played in the most famous operas and in addition performed requiems and oratorios and other famous classical vocal pieces. Don Giovanni, La Boheme, Lakmé, Faust, the list goes on and on. He too is put into a designer suit and, in promo shots and EPK videos he is seen strolling the streets of Rome to the sound of romantic string arrangements. In a way his case is more ridiculous than the others because he was introduced to the pop/crossover market so late, and we've seen the same Italian-hunk-posing-in-front-of-ancient-buildings-in-a-designer-suit too many times already - it's a worn out concept.

What makes a classically trained singer want to sing Daniel Bedingfield hits in Italian, or Toni Braxton songs in Spanish? Because their managers and producers wants them to? For the money? For the fame? For the female fans they expect to form fan clubs and show up to every concert on their tour and sit in front row and take pictures? The answer may be "yes" to several of the questions, sadly. I admire artists who dare to sacrifice the tempting promise of fame and fortune, just so they can be true to themselves and their art. People who make music, play and sing not because they want to be rich and famous but because they live and breathe music and can't live life without it.

Jon Christos - Northern Light

It's funny how you can discover new artists. I heard about Jon Christos through Josh Groban's message board - not very outstanding in itself cause I've heard about MANY artists there - but Jon was in fact a Groban fan himself and a frequent poster. His friend Alf, who's been member of the message boards for a while now, let us all know about details regarding Jon's CD release and provided web site links etc. He quickly got his own little fan base of Grobanites who now, in addition to their Grobanite titles also call themselves "Christosians".

Unfortunately I was unable to hear audio samples of his music until recently (a computer error makes me unable to hear audio in Flash, which is used on MySpace sites) but when I did I quickly realised that the board members' praise of Jon's voice was well deserved. I ordered the CD from amazon and it arrived today.

I was not the least disappointed. The 15 tracks range from opera arias to romantic pop ballads to Italian, dramatic crossover songs "Il Divo" style. But there ends the comparison; if Il Divo was junk food, Jon Christos would be a gourmet meal. He sings in English, Italian, Spanish and even Greek, plays the piano - and the violin, though not on this album.

My personal favourites are Immenso Sogno and Jubilate Domum, which should be in the music encyclopedias under "ultimate classical crossover ballads". The opera arias are also very refreshing - he proves that he can tackle opera, in contradiction to a lot of other crossover singers who just don't have the voice for it but are trying to get away with it anyway.

After listening through the CD I also noticed that his voice sounds a little like that of Øystein Wiik, one of Norway's most famous opera singers a few years ago and my hometown's greatest pride. ;)

"Where are they now?"

Recently I've been amused by the fact that almost all of the artists I liked when I was a pre-teen have made comeback albums. Hanson are back, Backstreet Boys are back. Boyzone will get together again. Take That will get together again, however without Robbie Williams. (I'm on a roll, I was not even a Take That fan.) That leaves only one band. The Kelly Family.

I'm always a little embarassed to admit I was once a fan of theirs, even though their song "I can't help myself" was very popular at my school, back in 1996. Die hard fans of Kelly Family weren't exactly considered to be your normal, supportive fan - The Kelly Family became their religion and it was their belief that the youngest member, Angelo, was in fact an angel, because of his long blonde hair and middle name Gabriel. There are even rumours of fans commiting suicide in the belief that they'd get to "Kelly Heaven".

My interest in the quirky family didn't go beyond the fact that 1)I liked their music and 2) I thought Paddy was "kinda cute". I had 4 of their albums I think until I stopped being a Kelly fan and donated them to a charity jumble sale.

But as all the other artists I was a fan of started to release music again I started to wonder.. Where are they now? Thinking that whatever they were doing, Germany would know about it (as the Kelly Family were huge there in their glory days), I started browsing amazon.de. Lo and behold! this is what I found out:

John Kelly, one of the older brothers, released an album in collaboration with soprano Maite Itoiz, who is also his wife. The album title "Tales from the secret forest" sounds like a fairytale, and the music itself, based on amazon's 30 sec samples, sounds like a mix of fairytale, new age, irish folk and rock opera. To my ears this doesn't sound like a pop album per se, because the fairytale like tracks and simple melodies make it sound so much like a musical or disney movie or something of the sort. But the music, whatever you may call it, is in its way charming and I find to my astonishment that John is one of the few Kelly members who actually had a pleasant voice.

Angelo, the youngest brother whom I already mentioned, has also gone solo and just released his first album, "I'm ready". Though judging from the music samples, I don't think he was. The songs in itself aren't half bad; something that would fit into the "adult contemporary pop" category, but Angelo's voice doesn't really match. The lyrics don't really match either; awkwardly phrased religious statements. Lines like "I pray to God for you/for myself as well" and titles like "Child of God" don't really appeal to me. I'm surprised to find that Angelo actually will visit Oslo on his umpcoming tour.

Paddy went solo 3 years ago as he released the album "In Exile" which features the hit single "Pray pray pray". (I even saw the video on Norwegian TV while flipping through channels) . He's shaven off his trademark long hair and seems more comfortable in a leather jacket than any of the hippie-inspired stuff he wore in Kelly Family's glory days.
His album partly has the same faults as Angelo's CD; songs that don't match his voice and lyrics that express religious beliefs in such a charismatic style that it scares people off rather than making them listen to the message. Other than that I'm almost ashamed to say that several tracks on the album are actually quite good, though again, Paddy's voice doesn't really compliment them.

Kathy, one of the older siblings, appears to have recorded several solo albums the last few years and has even released a "best of" compilation. In the albums she sings both English and Spanish songs, and I think the latter suits her voice best. It suddenly dawns on me why her voice seemed so strained and even shrill on some Kelly Family songs; it's a voice that seems to be trained for traditional Spanish singing and not really suited for pop - and certainly not the spiritual, grand ballads she tries to tackle on her album "Morning of my life".

The other Kelly Family members seem to have stayed in the band and released several albums, both studio and live recordings. The most recent one, "Homerun" from 2004 surprised me in the sense that they have traveled somewhat from the original Kelly sound. Maybe we should be thankful for that, then again maybe not - do we really need to hear the Kelly clan, with their not-so-big voices try to tackle jazz and soul? I'll say to their defense though that a change of image was indeed wise at this stage.

Zachary Provost - Heart of the Moment (EP)

This brilliant EP was released a while ago but I just recently bought it as it was made available in iTunes in Norway. I had already heard Zachary's previous release "Alive" and I admit my expectations were high - and the "pianosunshineman" as he calls himself on his message board didn't let me down. The EP is a refreshing little handful of piano based pop that displays both great lyrics as well as beautiful melodies - Three brand new studio tracks, one live track and a string remix of a song from the previous EP. His sound can be described as similar to Vienna Teng and Corinne May.

When I discovered Zachary's music it was because a fellow Josh Groban fan had recommended it to me - Zach played piano, did backing vocals and was musical director on Josh's tour. I was hooked instantly. I get the impression that not that many people are familiar with Zachary's music, despite good reviews in music magazines and online. Maybe it's because he's released two EP's and not yet a full album - I don't know. But if you like good music I suggest you check him out. http://www.myspace.com/zacharyprovost

I've stooped low.....

This image alone makes you able to know what I'm talking about in a fraction of a second.
Idol, or Pop Idol as the original UK concept was called, has been exported to many countries and is thought to be the most successful TV concept ever. The whole thing was created by Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell (the dreaded judge of the competition in both US and UK series), and the first UK season attracted 11 million viewers, according to http://www.tv.com .

In Norway, the 4th season of the show was completed in May as 18 year old Alexander Denstad With sang himself to victory in a sold-out Oslo Spektrum. The last 12 shows had less viewers than the year before and caused ridiculously little attention compared to the first season in 2003. Music journalists say they'll be surprised if the concept of Idol will "live" for another season in Norway.

I have to agree. I bought the DVD of the first 2003 season yesterday (hence the title of the post), just to be able to take a trip down memory lane. The Idol series has been worn out during the last two years and the only season which still stands, fresh and exciting, is the original one - no one had ever heard of it before and even though some people thought "oh it's just some talent show thingy" it seemed completely new and people were instantly hooked. As was I; as the show started in January 2003 I had not yet turned 17.

And there IS another reason for my thinking that the orginal season is the best one.

Kurt Nilsen.

He was the plumber with a music career on the side and played in a rock band called Fenrik Lane. He didn't exactly look like a pop idol - his teeth, or rather the gap between them, became his trademark and he was neither tall or dark. I think Simon Cowell put it best as he commented Kurt's performance in World Idol later that year - "You look like a hobbit, but you sing like an angel".
He came into the audition room in Bergen and sang one of his own songs in front of the judges, who weren't instantly impressed. Ole Evenrude was 'famous' for telling Kurt "You're no pop idol, you belong in a rock band."

But Kurt surprised them all. He grew to become everyone's favourite, with his charming personality and most of all, God-given voice. His soaring falsettos made the audience go wild.
In an April show, Ole Evenrude said "it's April, and I can already tell you're the winner of this whole thing".

And so he did. As the icing on the cake he also won the World Idol competition - an international contest with Idol winners from selected countries. American Kelly Clarkson was the favourite to win, but Kurt once again surprised everyone and with his flawless rendition of U2's "Beautiful Day", he won the whole thing - again.

Today he has three successful releases behind him; one being a live album from a collaboration project with Espen Lind, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm. In June they performed in front of thousands of fans during a free concert in Oslo town square.

So 3 years after he won the title of the Norwegian pop Idol, Kurt Nilsen is still on everyone's lips and selling albums in record-breaking amounts - the mentioned live album sold 40 000 copies in just three days.

But what happened to the other idol winners?

(Picture: The Idol winners - Kurt Nilsen [2003], Kjartan Salvesen [2004], Jorun Stiansen [2005], and Aleksander Denstad With [2006], all captured in the moment of victory.)

Kjartan Salvesen was the Idol winner of 2004. The official Idol single, "Standing Tall", was of course a summer hit that year, but the album release was a flop. During his tour, a concert had to be cancelled due to lack of interest - only 17 tickets had been sold. Today Kjartan seems to have taken a break from the music business and is instead enjoying parenthood along with his girlfriend, Inger Terese Austad.

Jorun Stiansen was so surprised that she'd won the 2005 competition that she was unable to sing the Idol single at the end of the show. Little did she know she was setting the trend for a large part of her tour - she was overworked, got infection after infection, lost her voice and had to cancel numerous shows. The single release was a total flop; it was a rewritten version of Lara Fabian's "The last goodbye", called "This is the night". The album turned out to be an even bigger disaster. Today Jorun is working on starting all over again, changing her lifestyle and writing her own songs.

Aleksander Denstad With won against all odds in May 2006. His rival Jonas Tomassen was voted the ultimate favourite in every online poll. Aleksander's Idol single "A little too perfect" is getting a lot of radio play and today Aleksander is busy touring with a few other ex-Idol contestants, driving 10-11 year old girls giddy.

Only time will tell if Aleksander suffers the same destiny as Kjartan and Jorun, but in the meantime I just have to hand it to Kurt. He is the Pop Idol, in every sense of the word.

Russell Watson - what not to sing?

(Picture: Russell Watson - looking smart, but what about his voice? Photo by Decca/Simon Fowler)

Russell Watson's voice has always puzzled me and I've never made up my mind as to whether I like him or not. Today I listened to Rolando Villazon's rendition of "Amor Ti Vieta" and compared it to Russell's version. Whereas Rolando's vocals emerge from his mouth like soft velvet, Russell sounds like he's in agony - of course not very pleasant to listen to. He also seems to breathe heavily (and audibly!) through his nose in between lines - a minor detail maybe but as I first noticed it it started to drive me crazy.

And here's the thing. Russell Watson is in possession of at least 4 different voices. When he uses all of those 4 voices on and off during a 4 minute song, it gets annoying. As an example I will use the title track off his latest studio album, "Amore Musica". It starts off beautifully with his soft pop voice. Then as he moves on to the first chorus he adds a bit more volume and suddenly his voice seems more edgy and like it's coming from the back of his throat - before it changes back to the soft pop voice when he is in the MIDDLE of a note. This is where I start to wonder "what voice will you end up using on this song?" As the second chorus apporaches he changes into his opera voice, which to me sounds very strained and with a forced vibrato - really belting out the melodies. The contrast between this loud and strained voice, and his soft pop voice is so huge that it sounds like it's a duet with two singers whose voices don't match.
His 4th voice can be heard on earlier tracks such as his famous "Faith of the heart" - the Star Trek Enterprise theme. It's a raspy pop/rock voice that sounds very mainstream and ordinary, though not unpleasant to listen to.

Why can't he decide which voice to use? Can't he do like most singers and merely adapt his voice to sing different genres, not create a totally different voice for each one? Personally I'd advice him to stay away from the arias for a while - when he so openly admits he does not have the classical training of an opera singer, maybe he shouldn't try so hard to be one. His "first" voice which is so wonderfully soothing to the ear would be sufficient to keep his fan base happy and even increase it.

I know I may seem offensive describing Russell Watson's voice like this (UK classical singer Jon Christos even told me I came down too hard on Josh Groban after I analyzed his voice to pieces..) but it's only my personal opinion and I mean no harm. I'll say to his defence that he does have a talent, though in pop music rather than classical, and seems like a sympathetic, nice guy.

Josh Groban's new album nearly finished!

(Picture: Josh Groban waving hello from Glen Ballard's studio in one of his recent video messages. Screencap by Rachel)

Yesterday afternoon this message was posted on Josh Groban's fanclub forum:

We are close to finishing the album. News coming soon.
Hope everyone is well.
Brian

("Brian" being Brian Avnet, Josh's manager.)
So the release of a new studio album is only a few months away! His last studio album was released 3 years ago - time flies - and judging by his own "updates-from-the-studio" video messages, it will be very different from "Closer" and probably miles away from his self titled debut album. All 3 of the song titles that have been announced so far are in English - "Weeping" feauturing Ladysmith Black Mambazo, "Lullaby", with music by Josh and lyrics by Dave Matthews, and "I'll wait for you", also written by Josh. He worked on these songs with Glen Ballard, who produced "Believe" from the Polar Express Soundtrack. In addition to that we know that he's been in the studio with Deep Forest in France (confirmed by Deep Forest's web site), and he was possibly going to collaborate with Joshua Bell on a track - since it worked so well on the last album... however I don't know if that really happened or if it was just a rumour or wishful thinking...;)

Grobanites on both of Josh's boards have witnessed me going crazy about this upcoming release - both in a negative and positive sense. Positive because it's been 3 years since Josh's last release and it will be interesting to hear what direction he's taking now. Negative because it's been 3 years since Josh's last release and it will be interesting to hear what direction he's taking now.

Let me explain...

It's always fun when your favourite artist releases a new CD, with the promo craziness that goes along with it; articles and reviews in every newspaper, talkshow appearances, radio play, posters in every music store.. then a new tour to follow.
But lately I've started to be insecure about what direction Josh is taking musically. When I first heard him I fell in love with his soft, operatic voice - however I was mostly into pop music at the time and didn't like the songs on his album that were, in my opinion, too "classical". It's been 4 years and 6 months since I bought his CD - I was 17 years old - and a lot has changed since then. I'm sure Josh has too.

"Closer" was different from the debut album both in the sense of his voice, which he pushed higher to sound like a tenor and at the same time adjusted to singing pop songs, and the music itself which was more pop-sounding and less operatic. Some fans found this disturbing, other again found it refreshing. I liked most of the songs but was not particularly pleased about the direction I felt his voice was heading in. That's what I'm concerned about with this next album.

And in the meantime I've grown increasingly interested in classical artists, not only in instrumental music like Joshua Bell but also vocally with singers like Rolando Villazon, Kiri Te Kanawa, etc. I'm afraid I've turned into a self-proclaimed culture snob; I'd rather see Swan Lake at the Opera house instead of going to a pop/rock concert at Rockefeller music hall.

The big question for me is.. will I like Josh's new album at all? Will I hate it? Will I be disappointed? Will I be indifferent? According to Josh I'll have to wait until October to find out.

recommendation: Aled Jones

If you happen to live in the UK you probably think I'm joking - I've been told he has a very conservative image and comes across as the sort of artist only your granny would like. Since the peak of his musical career was before his voice broke (and he's 35 now), most of his fans must be adults who remember him from "back then". He's released a lot of albums during his musical career, which he put on hold when his voice broke at 16 - and then made a comeback a few years ago. In addition to singing he also has a career in TV/Radio, and even has his own radio show on BBC Wales.

But now to the reason of my recommendation - THE VOICE.

When I first listened to his voice at amazon.co.uk, as I was browsing the classical section, I thought, "they have to be kidding me. this isn't classical". The light voice with a lack of vibrato didn't match the image I had in my mind of a Bryn Terfel-like operatic tenor. But there was still something that appealed to me. At the time I had just discovered allofmp3.com and I searched for his CDs there just to check and to my astonishment they did have two of his albums - I bought one straight away and the other a couple of weeks later.
If I were to describe his voice I'd say it's very soft and soothing. For some, myself included, it may take some time getting used to, but after that you'll find yourself bewitched by it.

If you have anti-religious views or anything of the sort, you may want to skip to the next post though. Most of Aled's songs, at least the recordings he released as an adult, are hymns or other songs with sacral/religious background. That may be hard to swallow for some but as a Catholic and deeply religious person I find his songs inspiring. Check out his official web site http://www.aledjones.co.uk , and hear samples/buy tracks at http://music.allofmp3.com/mp3/Aled_Jones/group_13636/albref_14/mcatalog.shtml

I can't decide!

I can't decide whether I should like, dislike or be indifferent to this album.
I bought it from allofmp3.com after I'd heard some positive reviews by online friends.
It is, undeniably, pleasant to listen to - a mixture of traditional Irish music and a certain modern twist - but on the other hand the album as a whole seems too sweet for my taste.
Maybe my ears have been spoiled from listening to too many big voices.. cause although the vocalists of Celtic Woman can carry a tune I find myself getting annoyed by their breathy (just like Charlotte Church only her voice is/was remarkably stronger) , thin soprano voices. Which makes this album alarmingly near of falling into the Sissel (Kyrkjebø) category - Too sweet, too gentle, too uncomplicated.

The instrumental tracks are actually the most appealing. One of them was even recorded live which gives a great atmosphere. The only thing is that this one track, along with The Butterfly, seem too much separated from the other 16 (!) songs on the CD - as my iPod started playing this track I thought it'd skipped to another playlist and that it didn't belong on the album.

I think my ears need more time with this album before I'm able to make a verdict..