Shawn Lee
The songwriters I like best are not usually the ones who tackle heavy social issues, or reveal deep emotional truths, blah, blah, blah, etc.; rather, they are the ones who can pack a song so full of hooks that every second is bursting with delicious musical flavor. Shawn Lee is one of them, and while he has been making records for ten years or so, I only discovered him six weeks ago, once again thanks to emusic. I've had his album Soul Visa (released in Japan in 2004, elsewhere in 2006) on heavy rotation ever since. "Some People" is a fine example of his style: a nice breakbeat, some "Brother Louie"-style wah-wah guitar and slinky Ernie Isley-like lead, infectious wordless backing vocals (I challenge you not to sing along with the "bop-bop-bop-bop-bah"s), a bit of glockenspiel, and Shawn's mellowly soulful voice all come together in a perfect pop confection. What's the song about? Not much (some people aren't friendly, or something like that), but it doesn't matter with a sound this sweet.
I had a hard time picking a single song to share from this album, so I went with the most hummable. The whole thing is great, and you can sample all the songs on Shawn Lee's own website (in RealAudio) or emusic (in...some other streaming format).
