Svelt St, a dynamic combination of vocalist Feelmore and emcee Bang! Cheeto (who happen to be married), hit me up with their debut album, ‘Hello, Dear’. It is really hard to characterize this album, since it pulls in so many different influences. To me, their album is an experiment in what they can do with music, and how many different genres they can cover (spanning from hard trip-hop to soft vocal and piano driven songs).
The album opens with Lights On, a driven synth-based track, which still features both Feelmore’s and Cheeto’s vocals, crafting one of the best songs on the album. However, the next song drops it down a few levels to the vocal driven ‘Black Wall’. Black Wall is where I fell in love with Feelmore’s voice. Absolute love. Her dark sultry vocals drive Black Wall, and really define the album for me. They are heavily featured throughout, and do great things for the ears.
‘St. George’ is the next track to really grab me, a raunchy sex-romp hidden in a quite downtempo song. The lyrics and the beat send very different messages, but that’s cool, because it makes the song really interesting. ‘Po’ Boy’, the first single off the album, is a rap song with vocals as the base of the beat. Think A Millie, just instead of someone yelling and Wayne rapping about being rich, think soft vocals and singing and rapping about a lonely kid. Definitely a high point of the album.
From here on, the album turns towards rock, moving away from the synth and drumkit driven first half of the album. They do just as well with the rock as they did with the trip-hop, but what really showcases their talent are the upbeat songs, such as ‘Promises’ (which is ended far too early). However, its still an awesome journey into some funk-guitar based sultry vocals.
Overall, as the album progresses it digresses into so many different genres its hard to keep track of. The songs are great when taken alone, but the album lacks overall cohesion. That is not to say I don't like it, (its been on repeat for the last week or so), but that it definitely has some room for improvement. However, judging from the talent inherent in the songs, I expect big things from these guys sometime in the near future.
Their album was just released, so hurry and grab a copy from their myspace!
Svelt St. – Lights On (YSI) (zShare)
Svelt St. – St. George (YSI) (zShare)
Svelt St. – Po’ Boy (YSI) (zShare)
