Seven, believe it or not, is a Swiss soulman . In his mountainous homeland, apparently, he’s huge ‘Home’ is his fourth full LP and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable collection – maybe it’s a little lightweight in here and there; in other places maybe he tries too hard to sound like Justin Timberlake – but when he and his mentors put their minds to it they do produce some great modern soul – especially when those mentors are Rashaan Patterson and James Poyser. Patterson gets a handful of cuts to work on, of which ‘ Wake Up’ is a fine, crunchy dancer. ‘On And On’ is slinkier with some sweet and stinging synthesised strings, while ‘If You Really Want To’ is better again with the maestro adding some distinctive background work. James Poyser’s big contribution is the balladic ‘ Hope We Will Be’ – complete with soap opera opening (vocal from Lani Evans) and some gentle percussion. Other featured guests include Conya Doss who duets with Seven on ‘Crazy X’ and the lovely Tamar Davis who works so, so soulfully on ‘Brother And Sister’ – one of the LP’s real highlights. Elsewhere, as I said up top , you could be forgiven for thinking that you’d stumbled onto a Justin Timberlake album – most apparent on stuff like ‘Right Now’ and the poppy ‘Golden Stairs’. That’s no bad thing, of course; Justin is quite an acceptable template to work from and when Seven gets it right, it’s very ‘right’. An equally valid comparison to make would be with Robin Thicke – indeed if you got off on that man’s recent ‘Evolution’ set, then I’ll guarantee you’ll love this too.Thursday 5 February 2009
Seven - Home - Nation Music
Seven, believe it or not, is a Swiss soulman . In his mountainous homeland, apparently, he’s huge ‘Home’ is his fourth full LP and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable collection – maybe it’s a little lightweight in here and there; in other places maybe he tries too hard to sound like Justin Timberlake – but when he and his mentors put their minds to it they do produce some great modern soul – especially when those mentors are Rashaan Patterson and James Poyser. Patterson gets a handful of cuts to work on, of which ‘ Wake Up’ is a fine, crunchy dancer. ‘On And On’ is slinkier with some sweet and stinging synthesised strings, while ‘If You Really Want To’ is better again with the maestro adding some distinctive background work. James Poyser’s big contribution is the balladic ‘ Hope We Will Be’ – complete with soap opera opening (vocal from Lani Evans) and some gentle percussion. Other featured guests include Conya Doss who duets with Seven on ‘Crazy X’ and the lovely Tamar Davis who works so, so soulfully on ‘Brother And Sister’ – one of the LP’s real highlights. Elsewhere, as I said up top , you could be forgiven for thinking that you’d stumbled onto a Justin Timberlake album – most apparent on stuff like ‘Right Now’ and the poppy ‘Golden Stairs’. That’s no bad thing, of course; Justin is quite an acceptable template to work from and when Seven gets it right, it’s very ‘right’. An equally valid comparison to make would be with Robin Thicke – indeed if you got off on that man’s recent ‘Evolution’ set, then I’ll guarantee you’ll love this too.
