FBI Anti-Piracy Warning!

I'm going to start a new feature tomorrow ... I was hesitating in doing it for two reasons: first of all, simp that I am, I didn't know how to do it; and secondly, I'm rather against the whole file-sharing thing. Yes, what I'm about to grace you dear readers with is my new "Song of the Month" feature! [Applause, applause!] But before I post the first download, I thought I'd chat a bit about the file-sharing issue in general, and how it relates to my "Song of the Month" posts in particular, if you'd be so kind as to indulge me for a few minutes....

I've always rather disliked the concept of free file-sharing, mostly because I strongly believe that artists should get paid for their music, and that we should be willing to pay for it if we are to be truly respected as "music lovers". Truth be told, I've downloaded an MP3 every once in a long while without paying for it, but I've always (and I do mean ALWAYS) either bought the CD if I liked the song, or deleted the song if I didn't. At the same time, I have very little sympathy for the U.S. music industry, for a number of reasons (which I may go into in a future post, if anyone out there is curious). Suffice to say, I could go on and on about the dumb-ass shenanigans of the corporate music mucky-mucks, and the bleak wasteland they've turned the music industry into, but I sort-of promised you a reasonably brief entry.

Okay, let's cut to the obvious question: If I dislike file-sharing so much, why am I doing it? Well, I have a few arguments in my defense. First of all, the only songs you'll be downloading from this site are either commercially unavailable in the U.S. and most other places, or are out-of-print everywhere; that makes it, in my mind, harder for the recording industry to justify a cry of "lost revenue" from my slow trickle of postings. Secondly, I've bought a lot of CDs over the years ... so many that the manager of a local store told me himself that my patronage alone kept them from closing months earlier than they eventually did. If the recording industry were aware of the 1,000 CDs that adorn my bookshelves, not to mention the hundreds that I've traded in over the years, they would not only find it really hard to prosecute me for music piracy (despite the fact that I do make the occasional mix CD for friends and family), they would probably be compelled to -- if I may be blunt -- get on their knees and kiss my ass.

Okay, I think that's about all I have to say on the issue, and I hope I've mitigated the concerns of the FBI, the RIAA, and any other concerned parties. And now, the obligatory disclaimer, which I've also posted at the top right of the blog's homepage:

Any song download posted in this blog is meant for evaluation purposes only, and as an entirely unofficial and unsolicited promotion for the artist who recorded it. No profit is being made by my posting the file, and it is requested that you please not distribute it further. If the song is not to your liking, I kindly ask you to delete it from your computer; but if you enjoy the song, I encourage you to seek out the CD from which it came.

CD of the Week: Erik Faber

ERIK FABER
"CENTURY"
(Epic/Norway, 2004)

I have to wonder how I've gone this long without once mentioning Erik Faber in this blog. I first got exposed to his music (beyond one song, this album's title track) just a few months ago, when a friend sent me a CD-R containing ten of his songs, a few from each of his three albums. I was met with one fantastic song after another, never having been so instantly captivated by an artist's music. Fortunately (for the sake of my sanity) I soon found an online retailer in Norway that ships orders to the United States. Without hesitation I ordered all three of his albums, and within a month I was leaning back in my recliner with my headphones on, my ears ecstatically awash in the beautiful sounds of this Norwegian pop craftsman.

Although what is currently my favorite Erik Faber song lies on one of his other albums, "Century" (his sophomore disc) is probably his best thusfar, situated perfectly in its melodic and lyrical evolution halfway between the radio-friendly accessibility of his debut, "Between The Lines", and the more emotionally weighty and sophisticated tapestry of his most recent album, "Passages". This album is everything a successful recording should be, with a perfect balance of catchy melodies, intriguingly assembled instrumentation, and meaningful lyrics. None of these elements ever overpower the other, and the flow of the album allows for a healthy mix of ballads, inspirational mid-tempo songs, and upbeat (but never quite dance-floor-ready) toe-tappers. Probably my favorite part of the album is in the second half, with the trifecta of "Strange" (with its semi-chill-out feel), "Open Your Eyes" (a vaguely Coldplay-ish brew of fuzzy guitars and moody, spooky echoes), and "Shivers" (an enjoyable, straight-ahead rocker).

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I've only been listening to Erik Faber for a couple of months and, though I've been listening to all three of his albums often and frequently, I'm still not completely finished digesting them. But I've heard enough to know that he will soon, in all likelihood, surpass Espen Lind as my favorite Norwegian pop musician ... and, in so doing, stands a good chance of entering the list of my top five favorite artists of all time. It makes me wonder what other phenomenal male pop musicians I'm missing by not having more exposure to the Norwegian music scene!

Buried Treasures

Four weeks from now I'll be in sunny Southern California, visiting with my sister and, almost as importantly, browsing the endless aisles of the Virgin Megastore, looking for those hard-to-get-elsewhere import CDs that I've got on my wish list. One of my first destinations in the Megastore (and in the late Tower Records stores as well) has become the imports clearance bin: where those pricey overseas CDs, which can go for over $30 at full retail, are marked down usually to half of their original price, and sometimes much less.

Sometimes I'll find buried in the unsorted mess an artist or album that I've actually heard of and had been considering picking up, but most often I'm met with CDs that are completely unfamiliar to me. After all, this is the clearance bin we're talking about, and only the obscure stuff that goes unsold for months ends up getting tossed in there. It can be very much hit-and-miss ... I fully expect to come home with at least a couple of duds that wind up in my trade-in stack in short order ... but sometimes I end up with an excellent recording that takes up permanent (or at least long-term) residence in my collection, and occasionally one that even becomes a favorite.

In anticipation of my upcoming trip, and in celebration of that usually neglected and underestimated corner of the CD store, here's a list of the better finds I've come across in the imports clearance bins of various Tower Records and Virgin Megastores over the years:

Kristian Leontiou: "Some Day Soon" -- If you love Daniel Powter, you'll love Kristian Leontiou. He has a strikingly similar style and sound, but released this major-label CD in the UK nearly two years before Daniel Powter made a splash with his. I'm not saying that one of them was trying to copy the other, or even that either of these artists is better than the other. On the contrary, Kristian Leontiou is the perfect complement to Daniel Powter ... and will do nicely in tiding us all over until Powter puts out his sophomore album.

Relish: "Wildflowers" -- Sometimes I shake my head thinking about how I almost missed out on these guys by not taking a chance and plucking the CD out of clearance-bin purgatory on a whim. Relish are a rock band from Ireland whose lead singer sounds a lot like Lenny Kravitz, and whose sound is permeated by a soulful positivity that seems to come directly from the '70s. Their song "Rainbow Zephyr" might sound familiar when you hear it ... it was adapted and re-recorded (with mediocre results, I'm sorry to say) by Westlife as the single "Hey Whatever".

Heinz Winckler: "One Step Closer" -- Probably the thing that most convinced me to pick up this CD is that it's from South Africa ... the first such CD in my collection. It turns out he was the winner of the South African "Idol" show, which explains the sound: radio-friendly pop that sounds like most other "Idol" products from every other country in the world. It is good enough, though, that I won't be getting rid of it ... at least not anytime soon.

Mark Owen: "In Your Own Time" -- This one I was specifically looking for, as soon as I found out that Espen Lind wrote one of its tracks. The rest of the album from this Take That alum turned out to be pretty darn good, too ... much better than his debut album from several years earlier. If you like Take That's new album, "Beautiful World", and haven't yet tried any of Mark Owen's solo work, I suggest picking up this album first.

Ronan Keating: "Destination" -- I've always been a bit sore at Ronan Keating, just because he's enjoyed far more solo recording success than my favorite Boyzone boy, Stephen Gately. But with this, Ronan's sophomore album, I found it in my heart to forgive him. There are plenty of fine songs in this collection, including two of my Ronan favorites: "I Love It When We Do" and "Blown Away".

CD of the Week: Matt Wertz

MATT WERTZ
EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
(Nettwerk, 2006)

Matt Wertz built his fan base with performances at a network of camps run by a youth ministry called Young Life. But, I won't hold that against him. (Just kidding ... although I must admit that preconceived notions of religious people and Christian music are a couple of things I still need to work on a bit.) A few months back, I came across his major-label, secular debut (presumably, since I don't actually know how praise-laden his previous two independent releases are), "Everything In Between", and I seem to enjoy it a bit more with each listen.

Matt is a singer/songwriter in the proudest tradition of Gavin deGraw (with whom he has toured), John Mayer, and Tyler Hilton, and incorporates the most appealing elements of each. He effectively uses his ever-so-slightly raspy voice as the twine that ties together a pleasantly mixed bag of sounds ... and that's where the beauty lies in this album: he puts a considerable variety in his song stylings, but doesn't make it seem at all like he's trying to. The highlights include the foot-stamping, hand-clapping "Heartbreaker", the tender acoustic-guitar ballad "I Will Not Take My Love Away", the sweetly soulful "Naturally", and my favorite, the heartaching rocker "Over You".

"Everything In Between" is perfect for the Tyler Hilton fan who's getting tired of waiting for his next album, mostly because that's who his voice reminds me of most. But I challenge anyone who likes "plugged-in" singer/songwriters to not take a liking to at least two songs on this album. It may take a couple of listens, but it'll happen.

B-Sides, The Point

In some people, the term inspires about as much excitement as the idea of day-old donuts. For other listeners, it can quicken the pulse rate and make the mouth water. Call them what you will: "non-album tracks", "rarities" ... to put it bluntly, B-sides are the leftovers of the music world.

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. As a not-quite-rabid collector of those sometimes rare recordings of the select few artists of whom I simply cannot get by without anything short of an absolutely complete discography (not counting bootleg concert recordings or the occasionally underhwleming cover song), I can tell you that I've heard B-sides for which it's glaringly obvious why they didn't make the final track listing of the album ... and I've heard songs that are so damn good that they should have been not only included on the album, but even released as singles.

Here is a list of my favorite B-sides ever, in no particular order. Some are fairly easy to find, some are needles in haystacks, but all are worth the hunt, especially if you're fond of the artist to begin with.

"Paint a Pretty Picture" by Tal Bachman -- Some musicians just use guitars that sound like bagpipes in their songs ... Tal Bachman went all the way and used actual bagpipes! Maybe the producer, Bob Rock, thought that some listeners might find the song too grating to include as a track on Tal's 1999 self-titled album, but I love its unique sound, more than most of the songs on the album ... and it's a fantastic album, so that's really saying something. It's available in two mixes: as a B-side on his UK "She's So High" single, and with toned-down percussion (the version I like more) on a hard-to-find 3-track promotional disc that I somehow managed to get a hold of.

"Over My Head" by Taxiride -- For some reason, I didn't care all that much for Australian rock band Taxiride's third album, "Axiomatic", but I kept the single of the song I enjoyed the most, "Oh Yeah", on which this moody, atmospheric ballad can be found. I think it's also included on the Japanese version of "Axiomatic" as a bonus track ... either way, it's worth having.

"Anything" by D-Side -- One of the new wave of boybands that hit the UK music scene in 2003, D-Side was originally a five-piece group who put out a good debut album, but lost two of its members and switched gears to a ballad-heavy sound for its second album. This upbeat gem manages to deliver a fresh sound (for a boyband), and can be found on their "Real World" single, or as one of two bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of their debut album, "Stronger Together".

"Dangerous" by Kavana -- I've loved the gorgeous voice of British pop singer Kavana for years, and have been waiting and hoping for him to make a comeback, so I can have more than two albums and a smattering of B-sides to enjoy from him. This is one of his better songs ... a lush, darkly sexy ballad, whose instrumental version (which I also have) is just as captivating as the vocal edit. You'll find it on his "I Can Make You Feel Good" single.

"Ya Ya" by The Moffatts -- The philosophical side of Canadian pop-rockers The Moffatts comes through in the uplifting "Ya Ya" ... an odd name for a really good and catchy song. An acoustic-guitar version is the easier-to-find one, on one of their UK singles (I can't remember which ... sorry!), but my favorite is the full-band "plugged-in" version, for which it's worth hunting down their 4-track JC Penney promotional EP from 2000.

"Delicious" by Ben Adams -- As I said in my "Thnairg's Hit Parade 2006" post, this one is a guilty pleasure ... kind-of cheesy lyrics, but you'll have it running through your head long after the first listen. It's the kind of thing that would have fit right in on Justin Timberlake's first album, if he took his image a bit less seriously. It's on CD1 of Ben Adams' "Sorry" single.

"Easy Way Out" by McFly -- McFly is one of those bands who's so good, they've never really had a "bad" B-side. For this list, it was a pretty close race between this breezy ditty (which could easily be a single in its own right) and their great cover of The Kinks' "Lola", but originals win out over covers nearly every time. This one is on their "I Wanna Hold You" single.

"Fairytales Sandcastles" by Lifehouse -- I'm really just a slightly more than lukewarm fan of Lifehouse, and I picked up their Australian "Hanging By a Moment" single primarily because it was backed by a whopping three non-album tracks. Little did I know I'd grow so fond of this energetic number ... complete with a toy piano. (Anybody who tells you a toy piano has no place in a rock or pop song, don't believe them!)

"Sun Is Shining" by The Feeling -- Anyone who's familiar with The Feeling knows how bouncy and fun their songs can be. This is one of their bounciest and funnest (is that a word?) of all! I'm not sure if it's on any of their singles, but you'll definitely find it on the Japanese release of their "Twelve Stops And Home" album. I spent a pretty penny to get it, but it was worth it!

"If You Knew What I Knew" by Backstreet Boys -- I've always liked NSYNC a bit more than Backstreet Boys, but songs like this make me momentarily second-guess that preference. It's a ballad, but with a bit of a funk/R&B twist. I ripped it to an MP3 before I traded in the "Larger Than Life" single it was on ... but, being more of an old-school, "physical CD" kind of guy, I like it so much that I'm thinking of hunting down another copy of it on eBay!

CD of the Week: Rufus Wainwright

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
"RELEASE THE STARS"
(Geffen, 2007)

This may be the hardest review I've ever had to write. It's not because I have to pan this album ... on the contrary, I don't know how to begin to describe the journey it takes me on as I listen to it. And the same goes for the artist: Rufus Wainwright is an anomaly -- I almost never go in for the artsy or avant-garde sort of music, but he's the exception ... perhaps exactly because his style is so difficult to categorize. He mish-mashes genres of music ranging from baroque to cabaret to country to rock, and somehow manages to make it work every single time, with his uncanny flair and charming voice.

Are you looking for an orchestra and what sounds like a children's choir? You'll find it in the semi-operatic opener, "Do I Disappoint You". How about a good old indie-rock-ish song? Try "Between My Legs" (not as dirty as it sounds!). Or maybe it's a slice of European-seasoned folk you're looking for? "Sanssouci" has you covered. And I won't even try to nail down what "Tiergarten" sounds like ... maybe someone out there can. And who else but Rufus can record an ode to Tulsa, Oklahoma, that sounds about as far-removed from the Great Plains as humanly possible?

Rufus Wainwright is a musician for whom the label "artist" is eminently appropriate, because the listener can almost see lush, vibrant paintings materializing out of thin air as his songs pour into the ear. If you're a Rufus devotee, you know what to expect. If you're new to him, this is the perfect introduction to what he's capable of. Go buy this CD, put it on with some headphones, sit back in your chair, close your eyes, and enjoy the ride.

Discography: Gil Ofarim

Okay, here's another new feature I've dreamed up, which I call "Discography". Rather than a simple list, as the word "discography" might imply, it's basically a summarized career overview (with what non-musical biographical data I might have) of a favorite artist of mine. We'll see how many of these I can come up with from time to time, before I run out of the artists that no one has heard of before. Enjoy!

DISCOGRAPHY: GIL OFARIM

Very few people outside of the United Sates know who Gil Ofarim is. A few more might recognize the family name: his parents, Esther and Abi Ofarim, were made famous (probably more elsewhere than here) by their popular '70s song "Cinderella Rockafella". Gil Ofarim was born with musical blood, but first rose to fame in his surrogate-home country of Germany as a model, in a "photo love story" published in a teen magazine. Soon after, he cut his music teeth on an album full of appropriately catchy, sugar-coated teen pop songs.

Predictably, his debut album, "Here I Am" (BMG Germany/1998), recorded under the singular name Gil, was a hit. However, showing that he was more than just a pretty face with pop-star dreams, he co-wrote a handful of the album's songs. It wasn't particularly remarkable pop, by any means, but the songs were fun, and a decent start for a young teenage musician. For a little insurance in the "crossover popularity" department, The Moffatts (one of my all-time favorite groups, who you'll surely see in a future "Discography") lend a helping hand on the sweet ballad, and first single, "If You Only Knew". Other popular singles included "Round 'n' Round (It Goes)" and "Never Giving Up Now". Some of my personal favorites are the guilty pleasure "Bang Bang Bang", and the slightly more sophisticated "Am I Crazy?" and "For Heaven's Sake".

Getting what was certainly very little rest between recording his first album and setting off on his tour, Gil followed up at the turn of the millennium with "The Album" (BMG Germany/2000). What this album lacked in instant catchiness it made up for in its slightly more grown-up lyrics and arrangements. The album's singles included "Walking Down The Line" (a self-propelled mid-tempo tune), "It's Your Love" (a nicely done cover of the popular country ballad), and "Out Of My Bed (Still In My Head)" (an excellent, high-octane love song). My personal favorite is "Stop", a great up-tempo number with crunching guitars and an unusual meter in the chorus.

Perhaps the audience's response to "The Album" was a bit disappointing, as Gil released his "Best Of" (BMG Germany/2001) a year later. It was clear that the release of a greatest hits album after only two studio albums signaled the end of his recording contract with BMG. It's too bad that they couldn't hear his potential as a recording artist just beginning to surface ... I sure could, fromthe three brand-new songs included on his "Best of": the spicy, Latin-flavored "Live Your Dreams" (so what if it was cashing in on the Ricky Martin/Enrique Iglesias craze?), and the breezy ballads "Do You Believe Me" and "I Can't Help Falling" (the latter of which was co-written by Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough). Also softening the blow of Gil's "farewell" was the inclusion (at least on the Asian edition that I got) of a Video CD of all of Gil's music videos.

However, it wasn't quite time to bid Gil a fond farewell just yet. He would be back two years later, although this time using his full name, Gil Ofarim, and with a significantly harder-edged rock sound. Gil had grown up, and wanted everyone to know it ... indeed, the album title, "On My Own" (NeoTone/2003), implied that he didn't need the help of slick professional songwriters (he wrote or co-wrote every song on the album himself) or producers (he also co-produced the disc). His first single, "The Reason", was the most "pop-like" song on the album, but was still a departure from his previous kid-friendly persona. Other good songs on the album include the anthem for independence "My Way" (no, definitely not the Frank Sinatra tune!), the heavy-hitting guitar cruncher "Already There", and the somber "Why?", inspired by the events of September 11, 2001 -- during which Gil was, in fact, on board a trans-Atlantic airliner bound for the U.S., which of course had to be diverted to Canada.

I had thought that the story of Gil Ofarim had ended with that album, but I found out several months ago that he was now the frontman of a German rock band called Zoo Army. My timing was perfect: a two-disc "limited edition" of their debut album, "507" (RNM/2006), had just been released, so it didn't take me long to find it on eBay. Joined by two other musicians as well as his younger brother Tal Ofarim, Gil has progressed even further into a no-holds-barred rock sound. The guitars (both rhythm and bass) are heavier, the beats more furious, and the lyrics more sophisticated.

I'm not a fan of heavy metal (which Zoo Army's sound could be classified as), but there's something about Gil's sandpaper-like voice (and I mean that in a good way) that draws me to the music nonetheless. It's probably more sentimental than anything else, having enjoyed his near-saccharine pop tunes for years. But it's good for me to have a bit of variety in my CD collection, and it's also nice to watch Gil Ofarim's career evolve through the years. So, whatever he comes up with next, I'll probably be buying it too.

CD of the Week: Colin Hay

COLIN HAY
ARE YOU LOOKIN' AT ME?
(Lazy Eye, 2007)

The number of musicians who have stayed as consistently good for as long as Colin Hay has can probably be counted without taking off your shoes. Twenty-two years and nine solo albums after the official breakup of his most popular band, the former Men At Work frontman is still at the top of his game, churning out his now trademark brand of witty, quirky singer-songwriter folk-pop. Where else but on a Colin Hay album can I hear a trombone and a kazoo side-by-side?

There are a couple of less-than-impressive tracks in this collection (the title track and "What Would Bob Do?" leave me a bit cold), but they're far outweighed by the excellent. And the range of moods keeps the album interesting: from the tender dirge "Up In Smoke" and the wistful quasi-gospel of "Pure Love", through the coyly playful "Me And My Imaginary Friend", to the jaunty "Land Of The Midnight Sun" and the New Orleans-flavored romp "Lose To Win".

Plenty of other artists are more prolific, but Colin Hay's sparse output only means a leaner, more well-crafted repertoire. He has beaten the odds and managed to forge a long and relatively prosperous career without the so-called "help" of a major-label contract. I may have to wait a bit longer between his albums than I do most other artists ... but when they're this good, I know the wait is worth it.

Listening With Our Eyes

I went to a Ryan Cabrera concert a few years ago, and it was fun ... but I was uncomfortable the whole time. I was one of the very few male, post-teenage audience members, and I went by myself ... undoubtedly the reason for the handful of bewildered and amused looks I got from other attendees, which of course made me rather self-conscious. But the real reason I was uncomfortable was the incessant screaming, from the beginning of the first song through the end of the last, by the throngs of teenage and pre-teen girls in attendance. It wasn't the squealing itself that bothered me, but rather what it meant.

It meant that those of us in the audience who weren't screaming (all of whom I bet would fit comfortably in one Volkswagen Bus) were the only ones paying attention to the music, rather than -- shall we say -- Ryan's aesthetic attributes. I suppose it's the excitement of seeing a favorite singer live and in-person with your friends that gets you caught up in the moment, but still ... if they're screaming at the top of their lungs, they can't hear the music, no matter how loud it is. Don't they care that he's playing guitar and singing, talents that we all know are hard to come by? I sure do.

That got me to thinking about other young male singer/songwriters from recent years, like Tyler Hilton and Teddy Geiger, as well as bands like Hanson and McFly. I enjoy them all very much because they're genuinely talented. And that's what I kind-of resent: the fact that I feel like I have to defend myself, like those guys who buy Playboy magazine and say they "read it for the articles" ... there are some heterosexual guys who do, you know. Just like there are some gay guys who listen to young male singer/songwriters because they like the music, and not necessarily because they're hotties.

Sure, they're hotties, but I have to wonder how the artists feel about being peddled for that reason above all others ... about having their self-penned music and lyrics half-buried under a slicked-up production gloss, and marketed to the masses inside meticulously composed photo layouts, usually in which no instruments (or anything else of a musical nature) are anywhere to be seen. It's almost as if the people who make the decisions regarding the packaging of such artists' releases are trying to remove all visual evidence of the person in question actually being a legitimate musician. Do they think that the consumers are going to forget they're buying a music CD? It's illogical, when you think about it ... guys who strum guitars and sing have been casting mysterious spells of romance over girls for over half a century.

There's another downside to the "fast track to fame": for every girl who pins a poster (or two or three) of one of these singers or bands up on her bedroom wall, there's a teenage or twentysomething (or sometimes even older) guy who scorns, mocks, and derides them. It's usually just jealousy, but it can also be peer pressure: I can't help but wonder how many guys out there actually like the music, but forsake fandom for the coolness of dissing a musician just because all of his friends do ... or, worse yet, don't even know how good his music is because such peer pressure won't even let them sample the music with an open mind, lest they themselves be just as savagely taunted and jeered. Heck ... only now is John Mayer finally winning over a fair share of male fans, after spending years with an almost exclusively female fan base.

I don't envy these young male musicians in the decision they have to make when they get their big break. Do they choose to put their artistic integrity on hold in order to get the exposure they desire which, in today's revolving-door world of major-label music, might or might not lead to a long-term career? Or, do they pass up their golden opportunity and linger in obscurity for years, whereby their chances for long-term musical success are possibly even more iffy? Whichever route they choose, I don't blame them either way. As I said, I love these guys for the music, and I've probably happened upon as many of them who've taken the high road to success as have the low road.

So, next time you pass by a CD by Teddy Geiger, Tyler Hilton, Ryan Cabrera, Kyle Riabko, Hanson, McFly, Ben Lee, Ben Kweller, Landon Pigg, John Mayer, or any other young musician (or group of musicians) who just happens to be young and good-looking ... don't dismiss them out-of-hand as talentless wanna-bes, or presume that their looks got them a record deal, because you never know what great music your ears might be missing.

CD of the Week: Grégory Lemarchal

GRÉGORY LEMARCHAL
JE DEVIENS MOI
(Mercury/France, 2006)

I bought Grégory Lemarchal's album online a few months ago, in the midst of a recent Franco-pop bent. He was one of those pop singers who got a record deal as a result of a TV talent competition (France's "Star Academy", in this case), but I gave him a chance anyway. I ended up being somewhat enchanted by his music (not to mention his adorable face). Little did I know that, just a few months later, I would be reading of his unfortunate death, at the tender age of 24.

Grégory suffered from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease which progressively weakens most of the body's systems, but one would never know it to hear him sing. The seemingly boundless energy that resonates from his multi-octave, quasi-opera-singer voice belies the image of his wiry body, and Grégory succeeds effortlessly in lifting each song into the clouds. Or maybe it's the songs lifting Grégory into the clouds...?

One thing becomes clear when listening to this album: the producers knew the kind of songs that would most effectively complement the strengths of Grégory's voice. Rather than cookie-cutter "Euro-pop" stuff (which they could have easily gone with, considering his obvious appeal to the teen girl demographic), the disc mainly consists of a variety of appropriately (but not too) sophisticated "adult contemporary pop" material ... there's the occasional rocker ("Je Suis En Vie"), the soaring anthemic number ("Le Feu Sur Les Planches"), and even a combination of both ("Je T'Ecris", which slowly builds over its six-and-a-half minutes from a quiet piano ballad to a chest-swelling crescendo), as well as a bilingual (English and French) ballad: "Meme Si (What You're Made Of)", a charming duet with European pop singer Lucie Silvas.

I suppose it's impossible to not hear an album in a different way after the artist has died ... or to not feel just a little bit guilty that I didn't appreciate the album more while the artist was still alive ... but at least I was able to hear his music and eventually enjoy it. And, at the risk of sounding pretentious, I'll always feel like my CD collection has a hole in it, wondering what delightful music he might have given us on subsequent albums, if he'd only had the chance.