KRISTIAN LEONTIOU
"SOME DAY SOON"
(Polydor/UK, 2004)
I happened upon this CD in the imports clearance bin on one of my last visits ever to a Tower Records. The cool cover art was the first thing that caught my eye, but I wasn't sure what to make of the artist's appearance. Buzz-cut hair, wearing a hoodie, with a piercing in his lower lip -- was this the next Eminem? Then I saw the promotional sticker on the front: "The incredible voice behind the hit single 'Story Of My Life'." The phrase "incredible voice" of course had me intrigued, so I decided to take a chance. What did I have to lose besides the measly six or eight dollars the CD cost me?
As it turns out, it was one of the better "blind" (or would that be "deaf", in this case?) purchases I've made over the years. It took a short while for the album to win me over, but now I'm seriously thinking about tracking down all the CD-singles for their B-sides ... a definite sign that I love it. The CD is something of a contradiction: the songs all sound fairly similar for the most part, but they're also distinctive -- I can recall the choruses of almost all the songs when I read their titles from the track listing. The unvarying sound of the songs isn't necessarily a bad thing ... the smooth flow from one song to another makes for a nice full-album listen, but the songs can just as easily stand on their own as singles.
The centerpiece, of course, is Kristian Leontiou's voice. Strong but also light and nimble, it's the perfect complement to the album's rich but relaxing electronic-based melodies. One review I read describes Leontiou as "a male Dido", and that's an apt description. Comparison to Daniel Powter would also be appropriate -- with a similar sound (adding piano in Powter's case), and even a vague visual resemblance, it's safe to say that anyone who loves Daniel Powter will probably love Kristian Leontiou just as much.
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