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Leela JamesA Change Is Gonna Come Warner Like her neo-soul predecessors, Leela James is determined to keep away from the over-commercialized tripe that is constantly on the airwaves ("Where has all the soul gone? / It's all about the video / Where has the music gone? / It's all just for the dough" she sings in Music). James avows that she would like to take the genre back to when Aretha, Gladys, Tina and Chaka ruled and it was all about the music rather than the lifestyle or the image. It is interesting, then, that she's utilized popular urban producers in her debut album, including Raphael Saadiq, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West (is he the new Neptunes?) who have shown that the image is just as important as the music. Additionally, James has also included her rendition of No Doubt's popular single Don't Speak. Theories aside, James is a fabulous soul singer and it's refreshing to see neo-soul artists continually emerging into popular r'n'b music - and much like Joss Stone, James' voice paints a very different picture of her true appearance. You would not imagine that such a deep, powerful voice can come from such a diminutive artist, and when she sings the soulful ballads on her album (Rain, When You Love Somebody, Mistreating Me, My Joy and a rendition of Sam Cooke's seminal A Change Is Gonna Come), her voice is uncanningly similar to that of Beth Orton, which is perhaps the last artist you would think of singing gospel and r'n'b music. It is great to see neo-soul artists balancing out commercial r'n'b music; I just hope that they do not become the new flavour of the month, because it'll be a sad day when real soul music leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.  |
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