sunny jamaica represent! an OMI, me 4 u record review
This is way, way, way overdue and I feel like I have a ton of posts like this to catch-up on/churn with the amount of music records/albums I devour on an almost daily basis. Okay, maybe every week or so? This week alone, I've already gone through Carly Rae Jepsen's Kiss record/album as I have fallen hopelessly, crazily, insanely (crazy and insane are synonymous but whatever...) in love with the track titled Good Time she collab-ed with Owl City with---I came across the song and MV on Channel V as usual. I've also tried some of Owl City's works but I'm on the fence with whether I should review this or not...for certain reasons. And I've been listening over and over to Years and Years and Walk the Moon and I never really even made any reviews for those pretty epic records both groups/bands released this year or around late last year (?...not so sure). Yeah, yeah, I'll work on a review for both Years and Years' Communion and Walk the Moon's Talking is Hard soon. Very soon. Just don't expect it to come out late this week. I might be able to get it out sometime next week or so.
OMI intrigued me so much when Channel V had him as their newbie highlighted artist for a certain time last month. Prior to finding out Cheerleader was actually an OMI original, I'd first heard it from Pentatonix...several times (they're apparently an AXN favorite among others) and thought it was a Pentatonix original. After hearing so much of OMI mentions over and over---say, maybe about a week?---from Channel V (yes, in case you're wondering, when I have nothing better to do, I actually park a whole lot there and very rarely do so in the local MTVPinoy...our cable provider's package we subscribe to doesn't include Myx, apparently), I finally jumped the gun to try his full length record, Me 4 U. The overplayed, and what evolved as kids' today's anthem, Cheerleader aside, I thought I'd finally found the right record to load into my iPad and bring with me to the plane to Manila, to the bus from Manila to Bagac, Bataan and back the past week or so.
Feel good, summer-y music is my default jam. If you see me with my headphones on, dancing randomly to some music I'm playing on any player on hand, it's likely that kind I'm listening to. And hell yes! OMI's Me 4 U is god-sent as it is filled with really good Jamaican-chill, feel-good music influenced pop tracks. It wasn't too tiring to listen to on the bus ride from Manila or NCR to Balanga, Bataan and the car ride from Balanga to Bagac. The tracks flowed from one to the next organically until it reaches full circle at the end of the record or the last track of the record that it's decided that it's high up there with the many records I consider decent like, say Tove Lo's Queen of the Clouds among others. I'm a sucker for an well-pieced together record that when one listens to it, one notices that every track is a perfect fit to said record, to the artist's style or music identity and more. This organic flow from one track to the next is one huge requirement for me to give any music record or album a grade of A- to A or even an A+ should I find its contents really excellent to the point it's something I'd never tire of playing over and over and over.
This, sans the fact that I begrudgingly retired OMI's Me 4 U on the drive back from Bagac, Bataan to the Metro because every kid I'd hung out with---generally, I don't hang out with kids but there weren't much people my age to talk everything sensible with at that time...?---to make way for, well, playing a lot of SOLIDEMO. The kids' endless looping of OMI's Cheerleader and singing to it even without its music (acapella) basically got to me between days 2 and 3 in Bagac with the family and the extended family. Thank heavens the kids only got ahold of this track via mainstream media (local radio stations, music tv stations, etc) and not the whole record from OMI otherwise I'd probably never gone through with this review had I heard the whole record over and over and over and over from kids about 3/4ths of my age. There's a point to overplaying beautiful records and saturating me with it because, like anyone sane and normal, I do get sick of just listening to one artist and one song or one full record of his/hers/theirs on eternal loop. It probably helps that the kids who were singing to Cheerleader do not yet have any idea how it's just a small part of a great big thing: Me 4 U. May it remain that way or I may just end up strangling someone or something...hnnn...
Okay...so how do I go about this, this time?
Highlights of OMI's Me 4 U record for me are these three:
Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit)
Hula Hoop
Hitchhiker
Aside from Pentatonix's beautiful acapella cover of Cheerleader, I've never really gotten around to checking out other mixes of this highly viral---to the point that it sickens me sometimes---OMI track. It was however instant love once I heard the album version which is the Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit of this track.
Hula Hoop sounds dangerously similar to Cheerleader. Well, we could say that the tracks (all of them) in Me 4 U have similarities because they share a gene---they're Jamaican chill, relaxing music-influenced. The root of their similarity might be the fact that they're very reggae at the core. Jamaica is known for reggae music after all---Bob Marley, to name a few. So if I said Hula Hoop sounds similar to Cheerleader, I actually mean it gives off the same musical vibe somehow. It's not as lively as Cheerleader and it may not have the easy to sing to lyrics like Cheerleader has (even kids would get it, Cheerleader, that is) but right up there with the latter, this makes me want to dance all night long...in the beach, with the sand under my feet and the moon and stars right above my, and everyone else's head. Oh and of course, with the sound of the non-violent waves next to me.
Even less than both Cheerleader and Hula Hoop is Hitchhiker. I say less because even if I included it in my top 3, it's actually a tad bit different to the two lively tracks in terms of musical pacing. You can still dance to Hitchhiker however it's slower in musical pace compared to both Cheerleader and Hula Hoop that are livelier. What drew me to Hitchhiker might have been how catchy it is in the chorus. It's definitey one of the right-up-there-up-high songs for me from Me 4 U.
Before I move on to the so-so part of the record, I'll go to my least favorite. This record can actually do without the title track, Me 4 U. I'm aware the said track should be there because the record is titled Me 4 U after all, after this track however, to me, this is the weakest in the record. Sure, the lady singer/vocalist OMI duets with on this track makes this one a gem but to me, when I listen to it, I actually make of this track as one that flirts more with the generic pop tune types. There's less to no jamaican reggae, chill musical influence to Me 4 U which is disappointing because this is the track that the album's title comes from. Yep, I often do skip this track whenever I'm on an OMI, Me 4 U binge.
Babylon is a bit of a sleeper for me. I don't have any particularly defined strong feeling for it. While I'm at it, I'd lump These are the Days with Babylon. Drop in the Ocean has its sparks (also, it can come off cute at times), particularly from the middle towards the end of it but is as much a sleeper as Babylon and These are the Days is. Promise Land is just so-so for me. I feel like I can actually skip this one along with the few others that I can do so within frequent listening in on the record.
Standing on All Threes is straddling the line between being a sleeper and just a tad bit interesting for me because this seems to be the one track that's really very reggae. Very, very chill reggae. Color of My Lips is right there along with Standing on All Threes in terms of being heavily Jamaican chill reggae-influenced. I just can't seem to muster interest on this one. Standing on All Threes is the better of the two. Stir It is a more popified, a more modernized Jamaican chill-reggae track. Other than the beat, there's not much very Jamaican about it should you pit it with the tracks mentioned on this paragraph. I'd rather go with Fireworks than with Stir It if we're to group together which among the album heavily leans on Jamaican reggae, chill music roots. On the contrary, I actually feel a lot more for Fireworks over the three: Standing on All Threes, Color of My Lips and Stir It. I can picture this track a mainstay at Jamaican music live houses and clubs. It'd also most likely be a favorite in the ones in Ibiza.
Midnight Serenade, however romantic it should feel like, isn't really my cup of tea in this record. It's not really down there with Me 4 U in my book but I feel like this track should have been placed elsewhere...maybe the second album or as a single b-side, not to be released elsewhere.
Sing It Out Loud, the album version that is a Freddy Verano Remix---it says so in its tag---doesn't feel so much like a closing track which is what I like about this record. It's not one of my favorites but it makes easing back to the first track feel or seem effortless. It makes putting the record on eternal loop painless should anyone go for a second or third listen to it. Or...you know, you can play the thing endlessly and never really tire of it despite the weak links. It's not a perfect record but it's pretty damn near perfect just because the Jamaican chill reggae music influence (or DNA) is right there, imprinted on 13/14th of the record, minus Me 4 U.
This record is probably something I'd classify as an adult contemporary one. Stir It isn't kids' appropriate. It's not very blatant but if you listened to it carefully especially around its lyrics, it's actually about sexual intercourse or is an invitation of one. Very, very suggestive. Fireworks also is pretty much adult, lyrics-wise. The chorus says so anyway if you had as dirty a mind as I have while listening to it. Haha.
Nope, even if it's bubblegum, reggae-pop and relaxing, I wouldn't recommend this record to very, very young kids. The explorative, more curious pre-teens, teens and young adult might get the concept of the whole record though. There are some pretty kids friendly tracks in here like Cheerleader, however. For the contemplative, I'd go with Hitchhiker and the always on her/his toes for dance-romantic, maybe Hula Hoop. Either way, like ready-to-digest pop music everywhere, it's best to go into OMI's Me 4 U record with an open mind. It offers something to everyone of every walk of life...unless, maybe, you're the kind who prefers the classical music. Then...hmn...let's leave it at that.
If I were a DJ-music producer, would I put this full album out for the whole club I'm playing at to hear? I wouldn't. I'd keep this record for personal listening pleasure. It's a good record put on loop to drive to somewhere far to. As far as club music from OMI's Me 4 U goes, I'd only go with Hula Hoop and Cheerleader...and because it is the closest thing to EDM in this record, These Are the Days (Luca Schreiner Remix), too. I'd play the rest for people in the club or live music venue to wind down the remaining minutes or so of the night to.
Other than the tracks, what I really like about the artist, OMI, himself? His DICTION. His singing diction, specifically. It's the best thing in the record by far. It's most likely the one driving force behind this record that made me like it so much. It makes listening to the record, even if you come to it with a blank or troubled messy mind, so easy to do. Once you get into Me 4 U, due to OMI's magnificent diction and on point singing, there's really no going back.
Should I expect the next album to be better than this? I don't think so. I think OMI's music can only evolve this much. Jamaican chill, appropriate for the beach reggae music is his music identity or signature...deviating from it as it is what he has established himself on from the get go with most of Me 4 U would likely polarize his fanbase. I, for one, as a loose and highly casual music listener with 0 loyalties to any artist would walk out the OMI fandom the moment I hear a not-very-OMI-like record or track following this already decent full-length record.
I'm grading this record an A-.
kg*
OMI intrigued me so much when Channel V had him as their newbie highlighted artist for a certain time last month. Prior to finding out Cheerleader was actually an OMI original, I'd first heard it from Pentatonix...several times (they're apparently an AXN favorite among others) and thought it was a Pentatonix original. After hearing so much of OMI mentions over and over---say, maybe about a week?---from Channel V (yes, in case you're wondering, when I have nothing better to do, I actually park a whole lot there and very rarely do so in the local MTVPinoy...our cable provider's package we subscribe to doesn't include Myx, apparently), I finally jumped the gun to try his full length record, Me 4 U. The overplayed, and what evolved as kids' today's anthem, Cheerleader aside, I thought I'd finally found the right record to load into my iPad and bring with me to the plane to Manila, to the bus from Manila to Bagac, Bataan and back the past week or so.
Feel good, summer-y music is my default jam. If you see me with my headphones on, dancing randomly to some music I'm playing on any player on hand, it's likely that kind I'm listening to. And hell yes! OMI's Me 4 U is god-sent as it is filled with really good Jamaican-chill, feel-good music influenced pop tracks. It wasn't too tiring to listen to on the bus ride from Manila or NCR to Balanga, Bataan and the car ride from Balanga to Bagac. The tracks flowed from one to the next organically until it reaches full circle at the end of the record or the last track of the record that it's decided that it's high up there with the many records I consider decent like, say Tove Lo's Queen of the Clouds among others. I'm a sucker for an well-pieced together record that when one listens to it, one notices that every track is a perfect fit to said record, to the artist's style or music identity and more. This organic flow from one track to the next is one huge requirement for me to give any music record or album a grade of A- to A or even an A+ should I find its contents really excellent to the point it's something I'd never tire of playing over and over and over.
This, sans the fact that I begrudgingly retired OMI's Me 4 U on the drive back from Bagac, Bataan to the Metro because every kid I'd hung out with---generally, I don't hang out with kids but there weren't much people my age to talk everything sensible with at that time...?---to make way for, well, playing a lot of SOLIDEMO. The kids' endless looping of OMI's Cheerleader and singing to it even without its music (acapella) basically got to me between days 2 and 3 in Bagac with the family and the extended family. Thank heavens the kids only got ahold of this track via mainstream media (local radio stations, music tv stations, etc) and not the whole record from OMI otherwise I'd probably never gone through with this review had I heard the whole record over and over and over and over from kids about 3/4ths of my age. There's a point to overplaying beautiful records and saturating me with it because, like anyone sane and normal, I do get sick of just listening to one artist and one song or one full record of his/hers/theirs on eternal loop. It probably helps that the kids who were singing to Cheerleader do not yet have any idea how it's just a small part of a great big thing: Me 4 U. May it remain that way or I may just end up strangling someone or something...hnnn...
Okay...so how do I go about this, this time?
Highlights of OMI's Me 4 U record for me are these three:
Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit)
Hula Hoop
Hitchhiker
Aside from Pentatonix's beautiful acapella cover of Cheerleader, I've never really gotten around to checking out other mixes of this highly viral---to the point that it sickens me sometimes---OMI track. It was however instant love once I heard the album version which is the Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit of this track.
Hula Hoop sounds dangerously similar to Cheerleader. Well, we could say that the tracks (all of them) in Me 4 U have similarities because they share a gene---they're Jamaican chill, relaxing music-influenced. The root of their similarity might be the fact that they're very reggae at the core. Jamaica is known for reggae music after all---Bob Marley, to name a few. So if I said Hula Hoop sounds similar to Cheerleader, I actually mean it gives off the same musical vibe somehow. It's not as lively as Cheerleader and it may not have the easy to sing to lyrics like Cheerleader has (even kids would get it, Cheerleader, that is) but right up there with the latter, this makes me want to dance all night long...in the beach, with the sand under my feet and the moon and stars right above my, and everyone else's head. Oh and of course, with the sound of the non-violent waves next to me.
Even less than both Cheerleader and Hula Hoop is Hitchhiker. I say less because even if I included it in my top 3, it's actually a tad bit different to the two lively tracks in terms of musical pacing. You can still dance to Hitchhiker however it's slower in musical pace compared to both Cheerleader and Hula Hoop that are livelier. What drew me to Hitchhiker might have been how catchy it is in the chorus. It's definitey one of the right-up-there-up-high songs for me from Me 4 U.
Before I move on to the so-so part of the record, I'll go to my least favorite. This record can actually do without the title track, Me 4 U. I'm aware the said track should be there because the record is titled Me 4 U after all, after this track however, to me, this is the weakest in the record. Sure, the lady singer/vocalist OMI duets with on this track makes this one a gem but to me, when I listen to it, I actually make of this track as one that flirts more with the generic pop tune types. There's less to no jamaican reggae, chill musical influence to Me 4 U which is disappointing because this is the track that the album's title comes from. Yep, I often do skip this track whenever I'm on an OMI, Me 4 U binge.
Babylon is a bit of a sleeper for me. I don't have any particularly defined strong feeling for it. While I'm at it, I'd lump These are the Days with Babylon. Drop in the Ocean has its sparks (also, it can come off cute at times), particularly from the middle towards the end of it but is as much a sleeper as Babylon and These are the Days is. Promise Land is just so-so for me. I feel like I can actually skip this one along with the few others that I can do so within frequent listening in on the record.
Standing on All Threes is straddling the line between being a sleeper and just a tad bit interesting for me because this seems to be the one track that's really very reggae. Very, very chill reggae. Color of My Lips is right there along with Standing on All Threes in terms of being heavily Jamaican chill reggae-influenced. I just can't seem to muster interest on this one. Standing on All Threes is the better of the two. Stir It is a more popified, a more modernized Jamaican chill-reggae track. Other than the beat, there's not much very Jamaican about it should you pit it with the tracks mentioned on this paragraph. I'd rather go with Fireworks than with Stir It if we're to group together which among the album heavily leans on Jamaican reggae, chill music roots. On the contrary, I actually feel a lot more for Fireworks over the three: Standing on All Threes, Color of My Lips and Stir It. I can picture this track a mainstay at Jamaican music live houses and clubs. It'd also most likely be a favorite in the ones in Ibiza.
Midnight Serenade, however romantic it should feel like, isn't really my cup of tea in this record. It's not really down there with Me 4 U in my book but I feel like this track should have been placed elsewhere...maybe the second album or as a single b-side, not to be released elsewhere.
Sing It Out Loud, the album version that is a Freddy Verano Remix---it says so in its tag---doesn't feel so much like a closing track which is what I like about this record. It's not one of my favorites but it makes easing back to the first track feel or seem effortless. It makes putting the record on eternal loop painless should anyone go for a second or third listen to it. Or...you know, you can play the thing endlessly and never really tire of it despite the weak links. It's not a perfect record but it's pretty damn near perfect just because the Jamaican chill reggae music influence (or DNA) is right there, imprinted on 13/14th of the record, minus Me 4 U.
This record is probably something I'd classify as an adult contemporary one. Stir It isn't kids' appropriate. It's not very blatant but if you listened to it carefully especially around its lyrics, it's actually about sexual intercourse or is an invitation of one. Very, very suggestive. Fireworks also is pretty much adult, lyrics-wise. The chorus says so anyway if you had as dirty a mind as I have while listening to it. Haha.
Nope, even if it's bubblegum, reggae-pop and relaxing, I wouldn't recommend this record to very, very young kids. The explorative, more curious pre-teens, teens and young adult might get the concept of the whole record though. There are some pretty kids friendly tracks in here like Cheerleader, however. For the contemplative, I'd go with Hitchhiker and the always on her/his toes for dance-romantic, maybe Hula Hoop. Either way, like ready-to-digest pop music everywhere, it's best to go into OMI's Me 4 U record with an open mind. It offers something to everyone of every walk of life...unless, maybe, you're the kind who prefers the classical music. Then...hmn...let's leave it at that.
If I were a DJ-music producer, would I put this full album out for the whole club I'm playing at to hear? I wouldn't. I'd keep this record for personal listening pleasure. It's a good record put on loop to drive to somewhere far to. As far as club music from OMI's Me 4 U goes, I'd only go with Hula Hoop and Cheerleader...and because it is the closest thing to EDM in this record, These Are the Days (Luca Schreiner Remix), too. I'd play the rest for people in the club or live music venue to wind down the remaining minutes or so of the night to.
Other than the tracks, what I really like about the artist, OMI, himself? His DICTION. His singing diction, specifically. It's the best thing in the record by far. It's most likely the one driving force behind this record that made me like it so much. It makes listening to the record, even if you come to it with a blank or troubled messy mind, so easy to do. Once you get into Me 4 U, due to OMI's magnificent diction and on point singing, there's really no going back.
Should I expect the next album to be better than this? I don't think so. I think OMI's music can only evolve this much. Jamaican chill, appropriate for the beach reggae music is his music identity or signature...deviating from it as it is what he has established himself on from the get go with most of Me 4 U would likely polarize his fanbase. I, for one, as a loose and highly casual music listener with 0 loyalties to any artist would walk out the OMI fandom the moment I hear a not-very-OMI-like record or track following this already decent full-length record.
I'm grading this record an A-.
kg*