Cubist: Prominence

Jazz/world songs in a western mold, heavy on the African influence. Polished vocals and peace-and-love lyrics are more "TV Family Special" than "college radio." Summertime grooving on the faster tracks; mellow and poppy on the slower ones.

It gets cheesy in places, but it has a lot of value for mainstream shows that mix styles. I do appreciate that the melodies follow winding jazz rhythms and not simple pop/R&B, and there's a lot going on with the percussion. (I'll have to check out Leake's other stuff, which is reviewed on Zookeeper as if it were a lot more... interesting.) No FCCs detected.

1- Upbeat, showtuney. A big group-grooving piece. A little embarrassing.
2- Mellow and elegant. Some nice violin and flute in the mix.
3- Mid/fast; upbeat and mellow; a touch of hippie mysticism (in a good way) and some rock guitar (in a trite way). Triplet feel is almost Celtic.
4- Nice groove w/flute, if you can avoid thinking about Christmas bells.
5- Nifty sounding chant, lots of percussion. Message of "go to school, stay out of gangs" is in the right place but comes across limp and naive.
6- Smooth R&B w/male+female vocs. Very smooth. Avoid.
7- Jazzy in a '70s way; mellow with a bit of edge and even some prog keyboarding. Honestly good.
8- Up/mellow, a nice bubbling rhythm and melody.
9- Catchy and honestly pretty pop song, but overdramatic.