Thursday, 25 July 2013

Cody Simpson- Paradise Album Review



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Album- Paradise

Artist- Cody Simpson

A young, cheeky blond chap with a charisma that will appeal to many teenage girls, Australian singer- songwriter Cody Simpson has become a teen star in his own right, with his pop persona being akin to the worldwide phenomenon of Justin Bieber, although maybe a bit more summery. However, whilst he has a loyal fan base, commercially the singer has not necessarily had the commercial success levels of some of his teen star peers. So the question is, is Paradise actually a good album that people are just missing out on?

Track 1- Paradise

Opening to the sound of waves and birds chirping, the first song and title track is a real summer anthem that evokes beach imagery and seemingly positions Simpson as the guy who can make us just forget our troubles. Paradise is lyrically a pop song that is based in the notion of love as Simpson sings to this girl about how great she is, how great she makes him feel, and how being with her is like being in Paradise. Simpson vocally has a youthful and light tone that gives a breezy quality to the track, with the “oh yeah yeah mm mm” hook of the song and the whistling in the bridge being cool and catchy and reminiscent a little of the song MMMBop by Hanson. The guitar strumming and light and airy tone of the production is typical pop territory, and so this is a track that opens the record nicely and will appeal to many of Simpsons female fans, although it does not really stretch any boundaries and is a bit typical young male vocalist/boy band territory.

3.5/5

Track 2- Got Me Good

Keeping with the light and acoustic tone of the previous track, Got Me Good is a breezy number where Simpson is once again telling this girl how she is making him feel really good and he really needs her, as he is sick of the same type of things coming up all the time. Placing the first two tracks side by side like this seems like a really terrible mistake, as this song is okay but doesn’t have as catchy a hook as the previous song and feels like it could have been written right after the last song was finished, particularly when one of the lyrics in the verses feature the idea of Simpson being in paradise with this girl. He brings another light smooth vocal performance but the production is just too simple and familiar, and so this is a song that only the fans of the singer will really enjoy.

2/5

Track 3- Be the One

Co-written by Colby O’Donis,  Be the One keeps the guitar strumming lightness and charismatic appeal of the record going, but it is also paired with a cool dance rhythm and a little bit of an RnB tone, so it is not another annoyingly similar song. Lyrically the song is once again another happy track where Simpson is so focused on one girl, as here he is singing about how all he wants is this girl and he doesn’t care what other people think. It’s a catchy and fun statement at first but by the last like 30 seconds of him singing it is a little bit like ‘ok Cody we understand’. Vocally he keeps a nice light tone and plays to the strength that is his boyish charm, although the emphasis on the vowels at the end of each line of the chorus is perhaps a little annoying. And whilst it is still a bit of a pastiche of the teen pop genre with a base that is reminiscent of One Direction, the sound is a bit more punchier and catchy here with the introduction of a bit of electro pop sensibilities, and so we have a nice if simple pop tune.

3/5

Track 4- Hello

Okay, so by this point you just want to say to this singer that we get it, you really like this girl. This is because it seems that he has no other lyrical inspirations: we’ve had him going on about how being with this girl is like being in paradise, how she has him good, how he wants to be her one, and now he just can’t get her off his mind and just wants to get her number and hear her say hello. It’s something that young girls will find appealing, but other music fans will not, with the repetition of hello in the song just becoming really annoying. The song intriguingly starts off with cool, electronic tones within the production, but all to quickly sinks into simple teen pop territory that is something people will have heard before. Although Simpson gives us a nice if simple (and a bit too layered) vocal performance, it is not enough to make this an interesting song to listen to.

1.5/5

Track 5- Tears on Your Pillow

With the title of this track I had hoped he was going to go into a bit more of an emotional place lyrically, even if he was still focusing on the idea of a relationship. But yet this is another song that is all about how this girl is great, with the only difference between this and the other tracks being that we have the idea of the girl crying, the only emotional element that is invoked within the record so far. As Simpson sings about telling this girl that she is and how he won’t take her crying on her pillow, we believe him with the cute vocal performance that is light in tone, and the production is simple pop territory but has a little bit of a Caribbean tone and so is nice in terms of bringing us in a holiday, relaxing state of mind, even if we are not. But the lyrical content is so bad, with the crux of the chorus being extremely over repetitive, and the song is marred by terrible clichés such as the idea of Simpson being a soldier of love.

2.5/5

Track 6- Wish U Were Here (featuring Becky G)

Finally this is a song that offers a bit of a change in the record and actually is something cool and exciting to listen to. Co-written by current hit makers Dr Luke and Bonnie Mckee, as well as fellow musician Taio Cruz, wish you were hear is not markedly different from the other tracks in that there is still this intense focus on this one girl. But the song has more of an emotional level, as Simpson sings of how he can’t live without this girl and just wishes she was with him. It is a strong concept that is centred around a solid and catchy pop chorus, and vocally Simpson sounds really strong, with the layering of his vocals giving a soft, smooth tone to the track whilst still holding this sense of fragility. Up and coming rapper/singer Beck G provides a charming and highly catchy rap as the bridge that offers a little sprinkling of a female perspective in the song that echoes Simpsons sentiment, and the production of the track is solid with the solid dance pop rhythms and light but forceful bass that makes for a simple pop song that is deliciously great.

4/5

Track 7- I Love Girls

Things are kept in more of an electro pop state with this track that finds Simpson going back to simple boyish sensibilities and focusing his attention on how great girls are. This song is a bit of a change in that he is thinking of girls as a collective rather than a specific individual, as he thanks God for making such beautiful and all-round great women. Clichés are employed that are annoying, but vocally Simpson brings a charm to the track that is really needed to carry the lyrical message, with the Auto Tune on the track here working to give this cool essence to the vocal that marks the song out against the other tracks. The production melds into the standing out of the track as well, creating simple bass that is catchy and having this little bit of a simple but frenzied electro energy.

3.5/5

Track 8- Back to You

The record takes a little bit of a softer and organically driven musical edge with this track that finds Simpson in more of a apologetic tone and giving the album bit of variation. The song has a strong RnB/ hip hop flavour in terms of the way the song begins, and how this becomes a motif of the track, and the handclapping beats of the production have that snappy RnB love song quality. This sound is appealing when mixed with the light and smooth vocals of Simpson, who comes off really quite charismatic within the song, and this charisma gives the track a little bit more of a believable quality. The lyrics are strong and a bit more touching, as Simpson apologies for letting this girl down and just wants to know how to makes things right so they can be back together. The only issues are that the chorus becomes annoyingly repetitive just a little bit, and the bridge is to clichéd in terms of its book metaphor.

3.5/5

Track 9- Summer Shade

With the clunky but light guitar rhythms and lilting quality of the vocal, this song is signalled as a summery kind of tune from the outset. The song brings the record back to a sound and lyrical concept that is familiar Simpson territory, as he simply sings to this girl about how he just wants to be with her all the time, preferably in the summer shade. Although he has a vocal tone that brings a sweet edge to the track, and the vocal ‘oohs’ of the bridge make for a stronger finish, the track just feels bland to a point if you are not a teenage girl, whilst the chorus is once again repetitive to the point of annoyance. The production is just too acoustic and summery, although the subdued electronic tones that simmer in the song are nice, and if they were a bit more prominent the song could have perhaps stood out a bit more.

2.5/5

Track 10- Gentleman

The final track is a typically soft way to end the record and finds the singer in a mode that is so familiar you will think by the end of this record that apparently the singer has only one side to his personality. The song is all focused on how Simpson will care for this girl, and asks her if she will let him be her gentleman. The song shows of a bit of delicacy in the vocal performances and a few flourishes of nice falsetto, but as a whole this track is just another song that is designed to appeal to a youthful fan base of girls, with the lyrics practically spelling this ideology out. The only thing I feel that this track should be commended for is the production, as although the acoustic guitar driven sound is by no stretch of the imagination orginal in terms of the rest of this album, there is a slightly more subdued quality to the guitar instrumentation that makes this more of a chilled, less of a summery kind of song, with the guitar to me having a slightly European feel.

3/5

Final Review

Cody Simpson has the potential to be a bigger kind of a teen star than he perhaps is at the moment, but the probably is that he either isn’t being given the right material or just can’t hear the fact that to most of the world he will just come across as bland. The singer has a light and quite charismatic vocal tone, but all too often his acoustically based sound with a strong summer vibe just blurs into one, and there is this really annoying sense of familiarity. The glimmer of hope here is the sixth track, which shows that if he mixes things up with a more polished pop sound then he could create a little bit more of an engaging record. And I’m not saying this to show favouritism over one genre, but I feel that whilst it can work for some people, too much of a similar thing and you quickly become bored. There is potential, but some work really has to be done if the singer is to really stand a chance in the music market.

Best Track- Wish U Were Here (featuring Becky G)

Worst Track- Hello

No comments:

Post a Comment