KILLIAN WELLS"HOT MESS"
(Inferno, 2007)
"Calm Before The Storm"
The story behind me finally getting my hands on this CD is kind-of funny (well, to me, at least). After looking for it, over the course of a month or so as time allowed, at every store in town -- from the independent record stores, to Wal-Mart and its smaller regional competitors, to the "big-box" places like Circuit City and Best Buy -- and even trying to special-order it from the neighborhood record store that I frequent (they didn't even see it listed in their distributor's online catalog), I started thinking that maybe the fact that it was so hard to find was fate's way of trying to tell me that I wouldn't like it. But, every time I went back online and listened to the sound clips, they were growing on me a little bit more ... so I finally gave into that nagging urge and ordered it from Amazon.
Well, assuming I was right in what fate was trying to tell me, it ended up being wrong. New Yorker Killian Wells has crafted an album that's a colorful mix of synth-pop and R&B, with dashes of hip-hop and soul. The '80s influences are the most apparent, but they're subtle enough that the album takes on a distinct 21st-Century feel, and Wells' agile and attractive voice is at the center of the album's appeal. The variety of songs keeps things interesting: a mid-tempo pseudo-love song that could have been sung by either Chris Brown or George Michael ("I Don't Wanna Fall In Love"); a pair of upbeat, syncopated poppers that I could see making minor splashes on radio ("Looking For a Way", "(If Only Life Could Be Like) Hollywood"); a smooth, spacey tune worthy of Savage Garden ("Calm Before The Storm"); and a tasty slice of turn-of-the-millennium Euro-pop that sounds like an outtake from an Adam Rickitt album ("One Night Stand").
As if Wells' musical talent weren't imressive enough -- he co-wrote every song on the album, with the exception of the '80s cover, "Your Love" -- he's quite the entrepreneur as well. He founded Inferno Records, the label on which the album is released and distributed ... and did I mention he even sells his own line of clothing and accessories? To have written, recorded, produced and released by himself (with help from a friend and colleague) an album that has major-label production values takes the kind of talent that will surely give Killian Wells a long career in music, whether he's in front of the mic or at the boards.
