Kansas-born soul artist Shawn Lee (who is perhaps most known for wearing an exceptionally realistic tiger head) and LA-based indie artist AM have got the funk! The two are known and appreciated for their individual work, however they have now fused together to form an exotic, inventive album titled ‘Celestial Electric’, suggesting that a spiritual journey is to be expected.
The opening track on the album is ‘City Boy’, where the journey begins – a song that includes great guitar sections, retro sounds and a soulful vocal. It starts off fairly low-tempo and then erupts into something thrillingly funky. The mixture of instruments mean persistent new elements being introduced – keyboards, bass, Latin guitars and the like. It shows through the perfected sounds that the two soloists had an immediate connection, which is what won me over.
Due to my naivety and the fact that I am a bit of a funk virgin, I didn’t expect a song titled ‘Lonely Life’ to have such a punchy beat, so the psychedelic electro sounds came as a surprise. With lyrics such as “On the surface/every night/beauty haunts you /deep inside” I found it hard not to visualise something dark and precarious, however when synchronised with the warmness of the melody the vision transformed into something, as the lyrics say, ‘beautiful’. At first I was sceptical, however I now find the effects of soul and funk music rather alluring.
A song that I particularly enjoyed was ‘Promises Are Never Far From Lies’, a track this is far from mainstream with its unique vocal and the keyboard sounds are almost hypnotic – I felt calm and collected after the first listen, it is a great song to get rid of the day’s stresses. I had not discovered many songs that have had the ability to move me emotionally, until now. Hipster followers, prepare to be amazed.
‘Dark Into Light’ is the pairs’ first single, and what an inspirational, uplifting song it was. The lyrics alone are something powerful – ‘when we’re gone/our ghosts live on/so have we tried/have we done our best/to turn the wrong into right?’ It is a pretty deep message, but still a danceable track. At the same time I found it a great song to mellow out to, making a cleverly diverse number.
The final song on the album, ‘The Signal’, is a spirit-lifting tune – I found it hard to sit still whilst listening to it due to its fast tempo and funkiness that is beyond description. It was a great opportunity to polish up my disco moves, as well as being a good choice for a finale track. The album definitely finishes with a bang and it comes to no surprise that this collaboration has been one of the most successful in soul/indie music. It was indeed like a spiritual journey, where I ended up in synth heaven.
