Do you ever have one of those moments? You know the one - when you hear a song and the world around you seemingly stops while your entire being becomes immersed in what you hearing, such is it's beauty and charm? Talk To Me by Andrea Lewis (and guest vocal from Simon Curtis) is one of those songs. I wrote a little bit about Andrea's sizzling Voodoo single a few weeks ago and had eagerly been waiting for her debut album "54321" to be released. It was made available for free and legal download yesterday (poetically 10.10.10) on her own website.
I haven't had time to go through the whole album as of yet, but naturally I was drawn to the song that featured the vocal stylings of one Mr. Simon Curtis. After being extremely familar with Simon's dark electro-pop stylings and adoring the scintillating energy of Andrea's Voodoo, I was expecting a ferocious club thumper of epic proportions. That is not what I got. Talk To me is an instantly stunning mid-tempo ballad that sifts through the scattered and uncertain debris of a failed relationship. It's built around lilting piano and guitar, with a deep backing vocal and finger clicks adding to the layers of the track - gives it a vibe akin to those glorious 60s motown ballads. The real joy amongst the sadness of the lyrics is how pure and undiluted Andrea's voice is. In an age where vocoder rules for even those who have proven their vocal abilities on national tv talent contests, it shines like a glistening star. Better still, there's a fragile emotion in her delivery that adds a huge vulnerability to the track and pulls together the incredible pathos going on here. Communication seems to be the root of all the fractured couple's problems as she details many situations that could have been better with a little conversation. What's sweet is the bittersweet optimism - that actually any of the problems can be solved ("do you see the light of the setting sun and will you talk to me")... It's a musical alchemy that flows nicely - and this in of itself would be quite incredible. However, there's more...
The middle 8 introduces Simon's vocal appearance. I would say with some confidence that it is one of my favourite vocals of his. That for me would elevate the track anyway. it's the cleverness of what his vocal performance does - it fleshes out the story with a different point of view on the communication issues and leads to a wonderful, if somewhat heartbreaking vocal tradeoff for the rest of the song (Simon "there's nothing left to say because it's over"; Andrea "do you feel the breeze through the open window...and will you talk to me"). But - as i've stated - amongst the sadness, these beautiful vocal performances and heavenly instrumentals fly and something incredibly special and poignant has been created here. I can't overstate how in love I am with this song - I'll be spending time with the album as soon as I stop playing this on repeat. Gorgeous.
