Sometimes its as easy to tear away from the norm. All it takes is personality, sometimes the approach to the craft. I don’t know what does it for Leo Sawikin, but he has taken a path of experimentation and blending strains of music that pleasantly surprise. His album is called Row Me Away, and he is in untested waters for what might be a great journey.
Opening the album with Born Too Late, Leo cruises on what can be explained as Sting after he left The Police. His voice sounds the same too, with the sensibilities as he covets the pop pizazz and adds the indie pop-rock flavor we all crave so much. The punchy bassline and funk groove allow his voice to shine, which it does owing to the cool progression.
Row Me Away is a flowing track with a lot to offer, with an interesting opening as well. Like you would expect Leo to, he delivers with razor edge precision. From the glory years of Coldplay’s X&Y, the song builds, sonically and in depth as we go into the deeper center, where the core is reachable. Relatable and personal, this song acts like a catalyst to emotional depth you would want to feel.
A myriad possibilities with minimal
It might be a hip-hop beat for a beginning, but that’s the clever delivery. Golden Days (Far Out at Sea) is a reminiscing song that beautifully melts memories into a necklace of integrated chord changes and flowing guitar parts. It is a song that triggers past moments with guided precision, something that usually only a master songwriter achieves. The minimal soundscape allows passion to reflect, and makes it a worthwhile listen, many times.
Forming sensational volume with a spaced apart drum beat, A Whole World Waiting sketches out a world of possibilities. If the chorus and verses are the sketch, the melody is the color, vibrant pops with mellow pastels balancing out this song. An unusual chord progression for the chorus, but it works with the instruments keeping hold of a structure.
Dropping to a lo-fi composition with If I Stayed, the song uses synths and whispering guitar to enforce a synthesized world of possibilities. Curated to implore and explore the depths of each stroke, the Hozier style composition is experimental as well as observational in terms of a song, seemingly reacting to prior strokes. Beautiful piece, one of my favorites on the album.
Showcasing instrumentality & layering
What can the dreamy synths not manifest? From the chaos of power metal, they introduce Leo Sawikin with a mellow shred of a slowcore/alt-rock ballad which is unique in style and production. The piano is heard as a constant, yet sounds distant in All Just a Drop. The Gilmour guitar bends just help amplify the well composed track.
With a very blues welcome, Leo Sawikin sings You Love Me Too Much. It has the unfamiliar sound of Elton John being born in a different era, with Taupin still writing his romantic hits. The minimal drumming and bare background help make it the simple love song that it is, straight from the heart.
Poetry in Motion
There’s a reason Paul Simon, James Taylor & even Mark Knopfler always fell back on fingerpicking acoustic on. Each string sounds like a different windchime, and if you play it right, your fingers are the breeze, a tease. Leo Sawikin plays Tell Me There’s an Answer with that very bare necessity, of having an accompaniment while reciting poetry. The chorus brings about church organs as well, simply floating in the background. By the time the drums & bass roll in, you’re already invested in the song. The best track on the album for me.
Something we all felt for 2 years, Wasting My Whole Life is Leo’s signature approach with minimal yet alluring delivery. He shares the pain, the process, and the heartbreaks with you, as fragments of moments. The track does what it has intended to do, tell a tale as a song. You feel it because no distractions stray away from the truth. Egalitarian purpose given to a song.
Closing the album with Take What You Want, the world stalls and becomes a little still. The suppressed sax, the synths, and bass all stand out with the minimal clicking and Leo’s voice. He has established what all he can do with less, which is so much more. He really knows how to invest in a chord, the desired effect and what it does in the occupied space-time in the recording. It requires a special drop of elixir, and Leo seems to be rowing away on a whole river of it.
Listen to his sensational minimal album here:
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Discovered via http://musosoup.com
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
